*sity  of  California 
uthern  Regional 
ibrary  Facility 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


Our  Colonial  Curriculum 


1607-1776 


BY 

COLYER  MERIWETHER,  Ph.  D.  (J.  H.  U.) 

Author  of  Hiitory  of  Higher  Education  in  South  Carolina,  Date  Maiamune  and   hisEmbassj  to 

Rome,  Etc. 


/78// 


WASHINGTON.  D.   C. 

CAPITAL  PUBLISHING  CO. 
1907 

1908 


Stack 
Annex 

Cage 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I. 

EIJSMENTARY  COURSE. 

Page. 

Religion  the  Keynote  in  Our  Colonial  Education,  ...  15 

Bible  the  Real  Primer  Then, 17 

Education  of  the  Indian, 21 

Education  of  Girls, 23 

General  Elementary  Course, 25 

A— B— C— Darians,   28 

Hornbook, 29 

New  England  Primer, 32 

Reading,  . . .  . 33 

Spelling,   34 

Writing, 34 

Ciphering,     36 

"Free  Schools," 36 

Teachers  and  Books,   37 

What  Was  Accomplished  ?  38 

Vestibule  to  College, 39 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE;  GENERAI,  coi4<EGE  COURSE. 

Page. 

Saving  of  Souls, 41 

"An  Asinine  Feast  of  Sow  Thistles,"  .' .  43 

Course  at  Dublin, 45 

At  Edinburgh, 45 

At  Oxford,    46 


4  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Page. 

At  Cambridge, .. . . 47 

Other  Courses,    48 

Text  Books, 50 

Physical  Incentives, 51 

Course  at  Harvard,  51 

Earliest  Harvard  Schedule, . . . 52 

The  "Laws  for  1642," 53 

Course  in  1655,    •  •  • 54 

Course  in  1690,   . . . . 55 

A  Particular  Account, 55 

Cotton  Mather's  Account,    56 

Course  in  1726  and  Later, 57 

Method,    58 

Yale  a  Duplicate  of  Harvard,  59 

William  and  Mary, 59- 

Other  Institutions,   61 

Harvard  the  Greatest  of  All, 61 

A  More  Detailed  Study, 61 

CHAPTER  III. 

ANCIENT  LANGUAGES. 

Page. 

Latin,  General  View, 63 

Latin  Conversation, 66 

Goal  for  All, 67 

Paths  to  the  Apex, 70 

Sturm's  Course  Before  1600, 70 

Roger  Ascham's  Notions, 72 

What  Was  Done  at  Westminster, 72 

y  Transit  to  America, 73 

Gass  Room  Scene, 74 

Material  Helps, 75 


i 


Contents.  5 

Page. 

Adopted  by  Comenius, 76 

American  Importations  of  the  Idea, 77 

Formal  Grammar,    , 78 

William  Lilly,   79 

Ezekial  Cheever's  Accidence, 81 

Composition  Aids,    . . . 82 

Dictionaries, 83 

Texts, 84 

Ponies,    84 

Did  They  Get  What  They  Were  After? 85 

Prig  Product, 86 

How  Was  it  in  America? . . . 86 

Demons  of  Discontent, 87 

Locke  and  Milton,   89 

Borrowed  Plumage, 89 

/xAmerica  Falls  in  Line, 90 

Only  a  Smattering,   91 

Did  the  Boys  Talk  Latin  ? 92 

Average  Acquirement, 93 

Failure  of  the  Effort, 97 

Greek,   100 

Beginning  in  Italy, IOO 

German  Start, ., 101 

Reception  in  England, 101 

Faint  Infusion  in  America, 102 

What  the  Secondary  Schools  Did, 103 

Virginia  View,    103 

Aids  in  Studying  Greek, , 104 

Sum  Total, 104 

Hebrew, 105 

Objection  to  the  Study, 106 

Judah  Monis,    106 

What  Was  Done  at  Yale, , . . . .  107 

Hebrew  Grammars, 109 


6  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THEOLOGY  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

Page. 

Chaldee  and  Syriac,  no 

At  Edinburgh  One  Hundred  Years  Before, 112 

Peter  Lombard, 114 

Other  Authors,  115 

Biting  Comments, 1 16 

Logic, 118 

Aristotle,     120 

Breaking  the  Spell  of  the  Stagyrite, 120 

His  Logic, 121 

An  English  Edition, 122 

Other  Authors,   124 

American  Manuscript  Editions, 127 

Bellum  Intestinum  logicum, 126 

Decay  of  the  Subject,  127 

Ethics,     127 

Other  Christian  Moralists, 129 

More's  Manual,     129 

Some  Harvard  Theses,   .  . .  .• 130 

Aristotle  the  Pedagogical  Father  of  Ethics, 131 

Philosophy, 132 

Metaphysics,    133 

Rise  of  Science, 134 

Shafts  of  a  Critic,  135 

Rhetoric, 136 

CHAPTER  V. 

GEOGRAPHY,  HISTORY  AND  MODERN  LANGUAGES. 

Page. 

Not  Much  Geography  in  American  Schools, 138 

Gordon's  Geographical  Grammar, 142 

History,    145 


Contents.  7 

Page. 

Light  From  Europe, 146 

English,    147 

Grammars, 149 

Little  Attention  in  America, 151 

French,   155 

CHAPTER  VI. 

MATHEMATICS. 

Page. 

Arithmetic, 159 

Chief  Text  Books,  161 

Most  Popular  Arithmetic,   165 

Some  Minor  Titles, 166 

Two  American  Arithmetics, 168 

College  Course, 169 

Early  Mathematical  Chairs,   169 

At  Yale,  William  and  Mary  and  Pennsylvania, 171 

Net  Results  in  College, 172 

Some  of  the  Textbooks  Used, 173 

Algebra, 175 

Astronomy, 177 

Mather  on  Comets, 178 

Educational  Uses, 178 

Thoughtful  Critic  Unnoticed, 180 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SCIENCE. 

Page. 

Attitude  of  the  Great  Thinkers, 184 

John  Baptist  Porta, 184 

vl  Scientific  Baggage  Taken  to  America, 187 


' 


8  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Page. 

Charles  Morton  as  a  Science  Teacher  in  America,  ...  188 
Table   of   Contents   of    1687    Manuscript   Copy   by 

Brattle, 191 

Abraham  Pierson, , 192 

Gravesande  and  Rohault,   193 

Physical  Apparatus, 195 

Apparatus  at  Harvard, , 195 

Inventory  Seven  Years  Later, 199 

Attitude  of  Thomas  Hollis, , 204 

Apparatus  in  1764, 205 

Apparatus  in  1779, , 206 

Apparatus  in  1790, . . . 217 

Care  of  the  Apparatus, 221 

At  Yale  and  Elsewhere,   223 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

DISPUTATION. 

Page. 

Disputation  a  Patriarch, 226 

Teachers  Argue, 226 

Enthusiasm  of  the  Pupils, 227 

Scope  of  Disputation, 229 

Questions  Debated  by  Medievalists, 229 

Jesuit  Emphasis  on  Disputation, 232 

English  Insistence, 233 

De  Disputationibus  Sophistarum, 234 

De  Baccalaureorum  Disputationibus, 234 

De  Declamationibus  Baccalaureorum, 234 

American  Love  for  Disputation,  235 

Keckerman's  Rules, 236 

American  Disputes,   248 

Some  Examples  from  Yale, 252 


Contents.  9 

Page. 

Some  Burlesques,   . ., 255 

Civic  Culture,    257 

Actual  Disputations,    258 

Milton, 258 

John  Cleveland's  Arguments, 260 

Something  from  Cheever, 262 

Another  Harvard  Disputation, 265 

Master  Satirist, 269 

Grave  Contemporary  Opinion, 270 

Petrarch's  Views, 271 

John  Webster's  Biting  Wrath, 271 

Ponderous  Milton, ^272 

Battering  Ram, 273 

Some  Defenses,    274 

George  Henry  Lewes's  Tribute, 274 

Quasi-Disputations, 275 

Commonplacing,    276 

Commonplace  Books, 277 

Last  Traces  of  Commonplacing,  278 

Died  With  Colonialism,    279 

Remnants  in  England, 279 

Religious  Disputations, 280 

In  Georgetown  University, 280 

Survivals  at  Present, 282 

SUMMARY. 

Food  That  Made  the  Giants, 283 

Bibliography,    287 


OUR  COLONIAL  CURRICULUM 

On  the  opposite  page  appears  a  table  of  our  collegiate 
studies  in  colonial  days.  A  bare  name  does  not  always  indi- 
cate the  idea  intended  to  be  conveyed.  Especially  easy  is  it 
for  a  misconception  to  arise  when  we  follow  the  history  of  a 
term.  It  was  soon  seen  that  such  expressions  as  Latin, 
arithmetic,  logic,  meant  something  quite  different  education- 
ally then  from  what  they  mean  now.  So  the  attempt  is  made 
in  the  following  pages  to  indicate  what  the  different  sub- 
jects in  education  then  implied.  The  enquiry  was  broad- 
ened beyond  the  limits  indicated  by  the  table  opposite  so  as 
to  attempt  to  cover  the  entire  course  from  infancy  to  gradu- 
ation in  college. 


COLLEGIATE  STUDIES  IN  OUR  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


Greek- 
Latin — 

Semitic — 

Mathematics- 
History — 
Philosophy — 

English — 

Political 
Science 

Physics — 

Bible- 
Romance 
Languages — 
Astronomy — 
Botany — 


I7th  Century. 

Translating;  prose  com- 
position ;  grammar ; 
Testament. 

Used  as  medium  of 
communication. 

Hebrew  —  Translating 
prose  composition, 
grammar ;  Chaldee, 
elementary;  Syriac,  el- 
ementary. 

Arithmetic ;     geometry. 

History. 

Logic ;    ethics. 

Rhetoric ;  composition ; 
oratory  (disputes) ; 
grammar. 


i8th  Century. 

Translating;    prose  corn- 
grammar  ; 
Greek 


position ; 
Testament 
catechism. 
Translating ; 


composi- 


tion and  grammar. 

Hebrew  —  Translating, 
prose  composition, 
grammar. 

Arithmetic ;    geometry. 

History. 

Logic ;    ethics. 

Rhetoric ;      composition ; 

oratory         (disputes) ; 

grammar. 


Politics   (with  ethics).          Politics   (with  ethics). 


Physics  (germs  of  sub- 
ject of  to-day). 

New  Testament ;  the- 
ology ;  Old  Testa- 
ment. 


Astronomy. 
"Nature  of  plants." 


Elements  (as  term 
"physics"  is  under- 
stood nowadays). 

New  Testament  (in 
Greek)  ;  theology; 
Old  Testament  (ex- 
pounded). 

French,   elementary. 

Astronomy. 
Elements. 


OUR  COLONIAL  CURRICULUM 

'78/7 
CHAPTER  I. 

ELEMENTARY  COURSE. 


To-day  science  dominates  our  schools.  Our  colonial  an- 
cestors studied  and  taught  in  an  atmosphere  of  religion 
which  they  had  inherited  from  the  middle  ages.  For  cen- 
turies the  pedagogic  aim  had  been  to  point  the  road  to 
Heaven.  All  training,  even  physical,  was  centered  upon 
this  thought.  "Care  for  your  body,  for  the  soul's  sake. 
Care  for  the  world  for  the  body's  sake."  Thus  solemnly 
enjoined  a  fifteenth  century  teacher.  The  king  in  his  court 
equally  felt  the  awful  responsibility.  Charlemagne,  who 
towers  so  high  in  the  medieval  background,  commanded 
his  subjects  "to  apply  yourselves  with  perseverance  *  *  * 
so  that  you  may  be  able  to  penetrate  with  greater  ease  and 
certainty  the  mysteries  of  the  Holy  Scriptures."  The  ecclesi- 
astical hand  was  at  the  helm,  and  the  church  formulated  the 
curriculum  and  fixed  the  purpose  of  the  different  branches. 
The  moulding  of  the  growing  intellect  through  all  Christen- 
dom was  in  the  charge  very  largely  of  the  priesthood  The 
Jesuits  had  schools  wherever  the  Bible  held  sway,  number- 
ing the  pupils  by  the  hundred  thousands,  before  our  fore- 
fathers got  a  firm  footing  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Men 
were  fashioned  and  inspired  for  the  gown,  the  robe  and  the 
cassock.  Learning  was  for  the  preparation  of  this  special 
class,  and  the  student  was  looked  on  as  one  set  apart,  of  the 
order  of  Melchizedek.  The  great  leaders  in  theory  and  the 
most  thorough  reformers  in  practice,  still  were  most  anxious 
to  show  the  path  to  the  other  world.  Comenius,  one  of  the 
brightest  stars  in  educational  history,  wanted  children  to 
express  devotion  with  every  bodily  movement  of  the  eyes, 
hands,  feet,  shadowing  forth  reverence  and  adoration  for 


14  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

the  invisibk  Majesty.  The  Holy  Scripture  must  be  the 
alpha  and  omega  of  all  instruction,  "the  governing  subject 
in  the  whole  scholastic  system." 

All  life  converged  to  an  apex,  everything  was  subordinate 
to  the  word  of  God.  Education  became  a  matter  of  author- 
ity. For  ages  dead  memory  was  the  only  faculty  much 
cultivated.  The  language  of  the  great  source  of  knowledge 
must  be  graven  on  the  brain.  Truth  must  be  accepted  as  the 
deliverance  of  omniscience.  Individuality,  originality,  must 
be  discouraged,  while  the  capacity  for  receiving  and  believ- 
ing at  the  utterance  of  his  preceptors  was  strengthened  and 
deepened  day  by  day,  in  every  hearer  at  the  desk.  Almost 
from  the  days  of  the  Greeks,  his  duty  was  to  accept  what 
his  master  told  him.  In  time,  it  is  true,  some  license  of 
opinion  was  allowed,  but  only  within  the  rigid  limits  set  by 
these  same  authorities.  There  was  in  all  this  labor  little 
food  for  the  mind,  but  there  was  hardy  discipline  for  the 
memory  and  considerable  sharpening  of  the  intellect.  Thou- 
sands of  miles  eastward,  among  a  people  often  the  opposite 
of  ourselves  in  view  and  action,  there  was  a  duplication  of 
this  sprit,  though  there  was  no  communication  of  methods 
from  one  to  the  other.  Confucius,  the  mighty  captain  of  the 
orient  in  ethics  and  pedagogics,  had  laid  the  foundation  for 
a  similar  training  in  China.  "He  taught  letters,  ethics,  de- 
votion of  soul,  and  truthfulness,"  but  all  as  a  sodden  lift 
of  memory,  unrelieved  by  new  ideas,  with  endless  reproduc- 
tion of  notions  handed  down  for  generations. 

But  man's  brain  like  his  stomach,  revolts  at  monotony. 
Protests  arose  against  this  crushing  crust  of  tradition  and 
precedent.  The  rule  of  faith  was  disturbed  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  custom  was  assailed.  But  the  firm  rein  was  only 
relaxed,  a  little  play  allowed  but  still  dominion  remained. 
At  the  shock  of  Arab  criticism,  questionings  arose,  and  old 
statements  were  keenly  scrutinized  for  their  accurate  mean- 
ings. Especially  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  acutely 


Elementary  Course.  15 

analyzed  and  tested,  and  from  that  beginning  came  forth 
the  thirst  for  examining  the  ground  work  of  the  principles 
so  long  undoubted,  but  the  fundamental  tenets  of  Christi- 
anity were  unshaken,  the  terms  of  the  Bible  were  weighed 
and  examined  but  on  the  premises  that  the  whole  book  was 
an  act  of  inspiration.  Comparison  and  investigation  went 
on  under  that  protection,  with  the  object  of  discovering  the 
true  construction.  A  harassing,  torturing  road  was  it  for 
the  mind,  seeking  with  pain  and  agony  to  reconcile  contra- 
dictions, to  make  all  fit  in  with  the  reason.  A  tangled  mass 
of  doubt  and  limited  freedom  of  inquiry,  a  mixture  of  emo- 
tion and  logic,  energy  bound  in  fetters — that  led  Ger- 
many's poet  a  century  ago  to  recreate  and  epitomize  the 
whole  realm  in  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters :  "I  have 
now  alas !  thoroughly,  with  ardent  care,  studied  philosophy, 
jurisprudence,  medicine,  and,  the  more's  the  pity,  also 
theology !  And  now  I  stand  here,  poor  fool,  and  am  as 
wise  as  I  was  before." 

XREUGION  THE  KEYNOTE  IN  OUR  COLONIAL  EDUCATION. 

This  tiresome  tangle  of  cross  purposes  and  baffled  spon- 
taneity crossed  the  Atlantic  with  the  first  wanderers,  cling- 
ing to  them  like  a  grim  spectre.  John  Locke,  who  comes 
the  nearest  to  penning  an  educational  classic  in  the  English 
tongue,  drew  up  a  stilted  constitution  for  one  of  our  south- 
ern colonies  which  was  ignored,  but  he  struck  the  basic 
chord  for  our  schools  then;  when  he  said  that  Heaven  is 
"our  great  interest  and  business,"  and  "happiness  in  the 
other  world"  is  the  spur  for  effort  here.  The  Massachu- 
setts legislature  of  course  knew  nothing  of  these  senti- 
ments, but  they  incorporated  the  spirit  of  them  in  one  of 
their  measures  of  education,  in  1647,  when  they  ordained 
that  schools  should  be  maintained  in  order  to  thwart  the 
"chief  project  of  the  old  deluder  Satan  to  keep  men  from 
the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,"  otherwise  they  fear  "the 


16  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

true  sense  and  meaning"  might  be  clouded  by  "false  glosses 
of  saint  seeming  deceivers."  Three  years  later  their  bretn- 
ren  in  Connecticut  repeated  this  caution  against  that  de\U 
that  was  so  personal  to  believers  then.  The  local  body  took 
up  the  refrain  and  were  almost  nervous  to  see  that  the 
young  were  brought  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord,  because  fruitless  must  man's  endeavors  be  with- 
out the  blessing  of  God.  When  poverty  was  too  great, 
they  petitioned  the  home  land  for  aid,  lest  their  offspring 
should  not  imbibe  the  principles  of  Christian  religion.  If 
they  could  get  that  the  rest  caused  but  little  useasiness. 
"The  Bible  and  figgers  is  all  I  want  my  boy  to  know,"  said 
a  pious  Dutch  farmer  and  his  voice  sounded  for  many  of 
his  neighbors.  It  was  the  same  whether  they  came  from 
England,  from  Holland,  from  Sweden,  whether  they  were 
in  New  England  or  south  of  the  Potomac. 

In    ethical    importance    the    teacher   stood    next    to    the 
preacher.    In  fact  he  often  discharged  the  other's  functions 
His  duties  were  detailed  for  him  and  a  strict  agreement 
bound  him  to  certain  things.    In  a  general  way  here  is  what 
he  had  to  do  in  New  England: 

1.  To  act  as  court  messenger. 

2.  To  serve  summonses. 

3.  To  conduct  certain  ceremonial  services  of  the  church. 

4.  To  lead  the  Sunday  Choir. 

5.  To  ring  the  bell  for  public  worship. 

6.  To  dig  the  graves. 

7.  To  take  charge  of  the  school. 

8.  To  perform  other  occasional  duties.1 

Still  more  minute  was  the  understanding  in  the  locality  of 
New  York  among  a  different  people  when  he  was  directed 
to  have  four  prayers  daily  from  the  catechism  by  his  class, 
to  teach  the  common  prayers  and  the  catechism  on  Wednes- 
days and  Saturdays  so  as  to  have  all  well  prepared  for  the 

1  Boone,  Education  in  the  United  States,  page  12. 


Elementary  Course.  17 

Sunday  lessons.  In  fine  the  bulk  of  his  agreements,  in 
some  'cases  three-fourths  of  the  articles,  related  to  religion, 
but  scarcely  a  syllable  would  be  inserted  on  education 
proper.  If  he  could  be  a  sexton  and  a  "Psalm  setter," 
could  read  the  sermon  in  the  absence  of  the  pastor,  toll  the 
bell,  intone  prayers  and  assist  at  churchly  ceremonials  then 
he  was  fitted  to  be  a  school  teacher. 

One  of  his  greatest  obligations  was  to  catechise  the  child- 
ren on  the  sermon  of  the  previous  Sunday  and  require  them 
to  rack  their  little  skulls  for  the  text,  for  the  subject,  and  for 
most  of  the  moving  passages.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  calling  was  loathed,  and  that  tramps  and  peddlers,  the 
very  driftwood  of  society,  men  of  broken  fortunes,  dis- 
charged soldiers,  often  presided  in  the  school  house?  But 
some  rugged  souls  went  through  the  mills  and  survived  as 
men.  There  is  one  notable  example  in  the  Boston  school- 
master, Ezekiel  Cheever,  whose  reputation  shines  down  to 
the  present.  Dying  just  before  the  eighteenth  century, 
nearly  at  the  age  of  one  hundred,  he  had  been  pioneer  and 
patriarch,  "the  typical  man,  the  man  of  prayer,  the  man  of 
faith,  the  man  of  duty,  the  man  of  God,"  one  of  "Cromwell's 
men."2  In  him  were  linked  piety  and  scholarship.  His 
Latin  grammar  ran  through  many  editions  but  paradigms 
and  syntax  were  the  small  things  in  life  to  him  by  the  side 
of  the  eternal  welfare  of  those  under  his  charge. 

THE  BIBLE  THE  REAL  PRIMER  THEN. 

Such  men  were  steeped  in  the  Scripture.  It  was  an  inher- 
itance from  the  early  ages  of  Christianity.  For  the  cen- 
turies past  the  psalter  had  been  the  chief  book  in  the  hands 
of  beginners.  One  of  the  most  popular  editions  that  crossed 
the  ocean  was  by  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  fervent  men  who 

*  Philips  Brooks,  Oration  on  Cheever,  page  28. 

2 


1 8  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  filled  with 
resentment  against  the  loose  amorous  songs  of  the  day  and 
tried  to  substitute  the  glowing  piety  of  the  psalmist.  The 
solemnity  of  their  task  would  hardly  prevent  levity  to-day 
if  the  schools  were  put  to  reciting  such  lines  as  these: 

"Our  soul  in  God  hath  joy  and  game" 
"Divide  them  Lord  and  from  them  pull 
"Their  devlish  double  tongue."8 

But  the  words  of  Israel's  chief  singer  were  not  the  only 
portions  used  for  education.  Church  councils  had  centuries 
before  decreed  that  pupils  should  be  taught  the  true  faith 
and  doctrine  as  the  foundation  of  all  instruction.  Luther 
though  fighting  that  organization,  retained  this  conception 
His  primer  also  had  the  Credo,  paternoster,  and  other  por- 
tions of  the  Bible.  Melanchthon  added  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  and  other  selections  from  the  New  Testament  but  his 
humanistic  preferences  also  incorporated  a  number  of  pages 
from  Greek  writers.  Locke,  though  not  an  official  church- 
man, followed  in  the  same  path  and  wanted  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the  ten  commandments  to  be  learned 
by  heart.  His  common  sense  refused  large  portions  es- 
pecially of  the  Old  Testament  as  unsuited  for  the  youthful 
capacity,  but  he  asked  for  a  "short  and  plain  epitome  *  * 

*  the  chief  and  most  material  heads."  Under  the  sym- 
pathetic gentle  hands  of  the  few  women  who  taught  in  our 
early  colonial  days  these  rigid  truths  were  softened  into 
stories  and  moral  precepts  were  inculcated  by  personal  nar- 
ratives. Skillfully  were  principles  graven  on  the  minds  of 
little  girls  by  having  them  work  religious  samplers,  often 
in  verses  of  "dolorous  pitch"  as  in  one  quoted  by  an  investi- 
gator : 

3  Mrs.  A.  M.  Earl  has  a  very  humorous  description  of  this  book 
in  chapter  12  of  Puritan  New  England  Sabbath. 


Elementary  Course.  19 

"The  winter  tree  resembles  me 

Whose  sap  lies  in  its  root 
The  Spring  draws  nigh,  as  it  so  I 
Shall  bud,  and  hope,  and  shoot."  * 

The  first  textbooks  could  hardly  be  anything  else  than  in- 
fusions of  this  spirit.  In  fact  the  Hornbook  and  the  New 
England  Primer  were  scarcely  more  than  adaptations  from 
the  Bible,  having  the  Lord's-  Prayer,  the  commandments, 
and  other  more  favorite  passages.  The  New  England 
Primer,  practically  the  only  book  that  younger  students 
used,  was  a  "Vade  Mecum"  of  religion,  "the  little  Bible  of 
New  England."  It  has  all  the  atmosphere  of  Sunday  ser- 
vices. Its  pages  are  sprinkled  with  such  terms  as  "abom- 
ination," "justification,"  "pray  to  God,"  "hate  lies."  Texts 
and  proverbs  are  found  in  it  about  a  wise  son  and  "give  me 
neither  poverty  nor  riches."  As  an  aid  to  the  memory,  per- 
haps, versification  is  invoked  and  such  couplets  as  these 
were  recited: 

"Christ  crucified 

For  sinners  died" 
"The  deluge  drowned 

The   Earth  around." 

A  most  touching  one  that  comes  down  even  to  the  present 
begins : 

"Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep." 

The  saturation  was  not  exhausted  even  with  the  multipli- 
cation of  textbooks.  The  first  prosaic  "spelling  books" 
were  composed  of  extracts  transferred  bodily  from  the 
Bible.  Out  of  168  pages  of  Benezet's  copy  20  pages  were 
given  to  spelling  proper,  the  rest  being  absorbed  from  the 
Bible  and  moral  teachings.  He  was  very  frank  and  plainly 
said  in  his  preface  that  his  aim  was  to  turn  the  youthful 
mind  to  "early  sentiments  of  piety  and  virtue."  This  em- 

4  R.  R.  Reedcr,  Historical  Development  of  School  Readers,  page 
26,  Vol.  8,  of  Columbia  University  contributions  to  Philosophy, 
Psychology,  and  Education,  1900. 


2O  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

phasis  transmitted  itself  through  the  classes  and  through 
the  years.  Near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  rem- 
iniscences could  be  heard  of  the  Bible  having  been  used  as 
a  reading  book  even  for  advanced  pupils.5  A  later  witness 
is  the  great  transcendentalist  who  quotes  the  case  for  us 
down  almost  to  the  nineteenth  century : 

"On  Saturdays  forth  came,  yellow  and  dim, 

New  England's  primer;    and  the  scholars  all 
Lord's  Prayer  recite,  commandments,  cradle-hymn, 
And  fatal  consequence  of  Adam's  fall."  8 

When  young  pens  then  as  now  took  to  diaries  they  natur- 
ally tended  to  the  sad  and  doleful,  to  questions  of  conscience 
and  sacred  duty.  They  are  very  tiresome  reading  and  ag- 
gravatingly  disappointing  to  one  who  searches  them  for  edu- 
cational data.  They  are  strewn  with  reflections,  with  notes 
on  sermons,  with  good  resolutions,  but  almost  not  a  word 
about  life  or  work  in  the  school.  It  is  with  a  joyous  burst 
of  expectancy  that  one  picks  up  the  "Journal  of  Dr.  Sewall 
during  the  last  months  of  his  senior  year  at  Cambridge"  but 
it  is  with  bitterness  that  he  goes  through  those  cramped 
pages  without  finding  an  item  on  his  college  life.  There 
is  plenty  about  ''sins,"  "horrid  remiss  in  duty,"  "jealousy," 
"God's  mercies,"  etc.  We  might  excuse  those  looking  for- 
ward to  divinity  as  their  calling  such  as  Wigglesworth  who 
recounts  in  1654  the  agonizings  that  he  endured  over  the 
question  whether  it  was  right  for  him  to  go  out  on  Sunday 
and  shut  a  flapping  barn  door  but  we  are  hardly  called  on 
to  forgive  Baldwin  over  one  hundred  years  later  at  Yale 
for  pouring  out  these  moralizings  when  he  was  not  definitely 
decided  for  the  ministry  but  was  still  looking  longingly 
towards  the  law.  Still  more,  down  to  the  era  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, we  find  a  little  girl,  Anna  Green  Winslow,  leaving  be- 

5  Bouton  relates   such  an  incident  in  Vol.  4,  N.  H.   Historical 
Society. 

"  B.  Alcott's  New  Connecticut,  page  24.    Also  quoted  by  Sanborn 
in  Vol.  i,  page  16,  of  his  "Memoir  of  Alcott." 


Elementary  Course.  21 

hind  her  a  manuscript  book  fairly  choked  up  with  the  texts, 
summaries,  and  other  pious  sentiments — and  she  only  ten 
years  old.  After  that  upheaval  in  our  existence,  and  with 
the  volcano  of  the  French  revolution  smoldering  across  the 
waters,  the  famous  physician,  Benjamin  Rush,  could  delib- 
erately draw  up  a  scheme  of  education  for  young  ladies 
covering  sewing,  cooking,  music,  dancing,  history,  poetry, 
ethics,  singing,  astronomy,  natural  philosophy,  chemistry, — 
but  all  to  be  transfused  into  one  purpose  by — "regular  in- 
struction in  Christian  religion."  ^ 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  INDIAN. 

This  same  benevolent  care  was  extended  to  the  soul  of  the 
red  man,  both  up  among  the  snows  of  New  England  and  the 
forests  of  Virginia.  The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  .his 
little  geography  in  1634  had  naively  remarked  that  the  In- 
dians were  "utterly  ignorant  of  Scripture,  or  Christ,  or 
Moses,  or  any  God."  The  pious  emigrants  sought  to  con- 
vert these  simple  children  by  making  bachelors  of  art  of 
them.  In  some  instances  there  seems  to  have  been  a  re- 
sponse from  these  savages.  One  of  them  near  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  in  Connecticut  had  asked  that  his 
children  be  fed  and  educated  as  he  was  not  able  to  make 
these  provisions  for  them  himself.  A  few  years  later  some 
members  of  the  proud  Six  Nations  had  applied  for  instruc- 
tion. It  is  soothing  to  say  even  at  this  distance  that  orders 
were  given  in  both  instances  for  these  requests  to  be 
granted.  Harvard  College  freely  admitted  applicants  from 
this  race,  provided  Indian  textbooks,  erected  Indian  colleges, 
and  also  sought  to  train  young  white  ministers  specially  to 
go  among  them  for  their  elevation.  It  was  required  of  these 
candidates  that  they  should  be  specially  skillful  in  the  In- 
dian language.7  Down  on  the  James  River  was  formulated 

T  Harvard    Archives,    manuscript,    College    Books    No.   4   and    5, 
April  28,   1712. 


22  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

a  very  high  standard  at  the  end  of  the  first  third  of  the 
eighteenth  century  when  a  curriculum  for  these  untutored 
natives  comprised  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  philosophy,  math- 
ematics, and  divinity.8  We  can  easily  believe  that  the  warm- 
est advocates  for  educating  the  Indian  honestly  attempted 
to  do  so  but  the  opposition  among  their  own  color  and  the 
age  long  conservatism  among  their  pupils  forbade  all  suc- 
cess. The  racial  prejudice  was  too  strong  and  a  few  out- 
croppings  of  it  at  the  beginning  destroyed  all  hope.  The 
rash  soldier  who  shortly  after  landing  at  Plymouth  Rock 
shot  a  fleeing  Indian  in  the  woods  that  refused  to  halt  at 
his  command  must  have  left  an  indelible  impression  hostile 
to  the  newcomers  and  to  everything  they  represented.  Be 
the  cause  what  it  may  the  results  were  very  meagre  and  as 
the  red  tide  rolled  backward  toward  the  West  the  chances 
for  schooling  the  Indian  became  less  and  less  and  the  de- 
sire weaker  and  weaker  after  every  conflict  between  the  two 
groups.  The  whole  notion  was  fanciful  and  the  plans  im- 
practical. The  pace  was  too  swift  and  the  red  students 
died  of  the  white  plague,  consumption.  Only  the  official 
evidence  remains  of  Harvard's  success  in  her  efforts  to 
help  these  forest  youth  —  this  entry  in  a  long  list  of  gradu- 
ates, "Caleb  Cheeshahteamuck,  Indus." 

There  was  difference  of  climate  and  of  environment  be- 
tween Massachusetts  and  Virginia  but  there  was  no  differ- 
ence of  heart  between  the  first  settlers.  The  contrast  of 
Puritan  and  Cavalier  has  made  pretty  little  pieces  of  an- 
tithetical writing  about  as  substantial  as  the  Washington- 
hatchet-cherry-tree-figment.  Proselytism  of  the  darker 
skins  burnt  in  the  breasts  of  both,  only  the  dweller  along 
the  James  had  two  of  these  ra^es  to  pray  over.  The 
planter  there,  William  Hunter,  wKb  paid  "Ann  wages  for 
teaching  at  Negro  Schools"  years  Before  the  break  with 


'  William  and  Maty  Catalogue,  1859,  page  i\. 


Elementary  Course.  23 

England,  was  in  the  same  road  with  his  brethren,  except 
we  can  infer,  he  was  a  little  way  ahead  of  the  others. 

EDUCATION  OF  GIRLS. 

Though  not  considered  on  the  same  plane  with  the  sav- 
ages, women  had  not  reached  equality  with  men  in  all  rela- 
tions outside  of  the  home.  It  was  generally  understood 
that  the  boys  were  to  come  first  even  though  they  may  not 
be  so  favored  in  the  wording  of  the  contracts.  Naturally 
conduct  was  the  chief  factor  in  the  girl's  curriculum  and 
special  emphasis  was  laid  upon  her  moral  training.  Before 
1600  an  English  author  had  fixed  the  bounds  for  female 
education.  Thomas  Becon  had  declared  that  young  women 
should  be  taught  "to  be  sober-minded,  to  love  their  hus- 
bands, to  love  their  children,  to  be  discreet,  chaste,  house- 
wifely, good,  obedient  to  their  husbands." 

That  medieval  star,  Vives,  in  the  i6th  century,  restricted 
woman's  reading  to  gospels,  acts,  epistles,  Old  Testament, 
Hieronymus,  Cyprian,  Augustine,  Ambrose,  Hilary,  Gre- 
gory, Plato,  Cicero,  Seneca — all  highly  moral,  well  calcu- 
lated to  bolster  up  frail  femininity  which  was  "more  inclined 
by  nature  to  sin  than  men." 

The  same  view  was  held  generally  through  Europe, 
through  the  world.  Even  one  hundred  years  later  Fenelon 
thought  that  closest  attention  in  the  training  of  girls  should 
be  paid  to  modesty,  gentleness,  piety,  household  economy, 
and  the  special  duties  of  their  station  in  life.  The  colonists 
seemed  to  think  that  a  little  "reading  and  spelling,  sewing, 
and  embroidering,"  with  sampler  making,  could  not  do  much 
harm  but  not  too  much  mental  food  was  to  be  laid  before 
them.  Arithmetic,  grammar,  and  geography,  were  gener- 
ally thought  superfluous  except  mere  spoonfuls  of  dilu- 
tion.9 What  need  of  figuring  as  all  "expected  to  obtain  hus- 

*  W.  D.  Orcutt,  Good  Old  Dorchester,  page  308. 


24  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

bands  to  perform  whatever  arithmetical  operations  they 
might  need  beyond  the  counting  of  fingers?"  Gradually  a 
little  ciphering  was  added  in  the  general  scheme  though 
there  must  have  been  individual  instances  of  the  study  of 
arithmetic  throughout  the  colonies  from  the  beginning  on 
down.  Some  would  also  learn  the  four  basic  rules  as  a  mat- 
ter of  long-sighted  precaution  for,  while  they  had  no  "idea 
of  becoming  old  maids,"  they  "might  be  left  widows."10  If 
they  could  sew,  that  was  "the  height  of  their  ambition,"  for 
the  bulk.11  They  were  not  fit  to  go  to  the  same  school  with 
their  brothers  nor  were  they  worthy  of  masculine  example  in 
the  teacher.  They  got  their  smattering  either  at  home  or  in 
"Marm  schools,"  or  "Dame  schools,"  under  the  fostering 
hand  of  "Vestal  maidens".  The  women  who  taught  them 
not  being  educated  it  was  only  natural  that  their  pupils  got 
but  little.  Some  New  England  antiquary  has  surmised  that 
"probably  not  one  woman  in  a  dozen  could  write."12  A 
schoolmaster  who  also  wrote  a  textbook  placidly  drops  a 
word  or  two  relating  to  the  fair  sex — "it  is  generally  re- 
marked that  they  are  so  unhappy  as  seldom  to  be  found 
either  to  write  or  cipher  well" — and  this  just  before  i8oo.13 
In  many  cases  neither  men  nor  women  signed  wills  except 
by  a  cross  but  the  proportion  is  very  much  larger  in  the  case 
of  women  than  men.14 

Of  course  among  fathers  so  devoted  to  learning,  there 
were  individual  instances  of  highly  cultivated  daughters. 
One  of  the  best  known  is  Cotton  Mather's  daughter  Kath- 
erine.  After  allowing  for  the  natural  pride  of  a  parent, 
we  can  still  see  a  solid  foundation  for  the  fond  utterances  of 
his  funeral  sermon  at  her  death  in  the  prime  of  young  wo- 

10  Warren  Burton,  page  152  of  his  District  School. 

11  Felt's  Ipswich,  page  90. 
"Eggleston's  Transit,  page  244. 

"  Dilworth,  Bookkeeper's  Assistant,  XIII. 
14  Felt's  Ipswich,  page  go. 


Elementary  Course.  2$ 

manhood,  that  she  was  "mistress  of  the  Hebrew  tongue"  and 
a  "good  Latin  scholar". 

Another  instance  is  the  classical  training  of  Jonathan 
Edward's  ten  sisters  by  their  stern  father,  Timothy  Edwards, 
who,  so  far  as  can  be  learned  now,  made  them  all  go  through 
the  same  course  that  the  young  men  in  his  school  took  for 
entrance  to  Harvard  and  Yale.  Nay,  more,  so  well 
grounded  were  his  girls  in  Latin  and  Greek  that  he  would 
leave  them  to  hear  recitations  in  these  ancient  tongues  dur- 
ing his  absence  on  ministerial  duties.  Neither  does  this  cul- 
ture seem  to  have  undermined  their  health,  nor  to  have  mar- 
red their  feminine  graces  as  they  still  loved  needle  work,  and 
only  one  became  an  old  maid.15 

GENERAL  ELEMENTARY  COURSE. 

The  oldest  existing  English  town  in  the  United  States  is 
Hampton,  Va.,  which  also  has  the  oldest  free  school.16  Some 
twenty-five  years  after,  near  the  middle  of  the  iyth  century, 
far  away  to  the  northward,  the  same  zeal  for  education  ex- 
pressed itself,  one  of  the  earliest  instances  being  found  in 
the  little  place  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  when  the  inhabitants  de- 
clared for  a  school  "for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  litera- 
ture."17 Two  years  later  came  the  famous  statue  of  that 
colony  requiring  all  towns  to  establish  schools  to  teach  read- 
ing and  writing.  But  there  was  a  general  blanket  of  re- 
ligion that  the  youth  should  be  trained  "in  all  scholasticall, 
morall,  and  theologicall  discupline."18  Later,  near  the  end 
of  the  century,  in  some  places  ciphering  was  added  to  the 
meagre  diet.19  Again,  five  years  beyond  the  birth  of  the 

"  Mrs.  H.  M.  Plunkett,  Scribner's  Magazine,  January,  1903. 
"L.  G.  Tyler,  page  77  of  his  William  and  Mary  Quarterly,  Oct., 
1897- 

17  Dillaway's  Roxbury,  page  20. 
u  Dillaway's  Roxbury,  page  30. 
"  Chase's  Haverhill,  page  142. 


26  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

new  century,  we  find  Latin  added  in  the  town  of  Ply- 
mouth.20 It  was  a  hard  and  practical  time  with  these 
early  settlers  and  very  often  only  the  most  necessary  rudi- 
ments could  be  imparted.  Instead  of  arithmetic  they  often 
had  "casting  accounts".  As  the  years  counted  up  more 
branches  were  appended.  Only  seven  or  eight  years  before 
the  outbreak  with  England,  Providence,  in  Rhode  Island, 
listed  "reading,  accounting,  pronouncing,  and  properly  un- 
derstanding the  English  tongue,  writing,  arithmetic,  the  var- 
ious branches  of  arithmetic  and  the  learned  languages."21 
This  menu  was  perhaps  too  rich  for  the  stage  of  develop- 
ment then  as  the  report  was  not  adopted  but  it  is  of  value  as 
showing  the  aim  of  the  period. 

Sweden  was  said  to  have  very  general  education.  Her 
emigrants  were  ambitious  even  though  among  the  wilds  of 
America,  and  it  was  one  of  their  chief  concerns  to  obtain 
books  and  appliances  from  the  motherland.  **  A  metropolitan 
center  like  New  York  was  still  more  diversified  in  its  hunger 
and  it  has  been  unearthed  from  the  accumulations  of  the  past 
that  about  1730  a  teacher  offered  "reading,  writing,  cipher- 
ing, merchants'  accounts,  Latin,  Greek ;  also  dancing,  plain 
work,  flourishing,  embroidering  and  various  sorts  of 
work."23  That  common  sense  genius,  Franklin,  about  1750, 
evolved  a  very  comprehensive  scheme  for  elementary  educa- 
tion, to  cover  six  classes  and  contain  reading,  writing,  spell- 
ing, history,  natural  science,  composition,  letter-writing, 
ethics,  chronology,  geography,  logic,  literature,  grammar, 
and  public  speaking.24  The  first  head  of  Pennsylvania  Uni- 
versity three  years  after  declared  that  the  English  language 
with  some  writing  and  figuring  and  "a  short  system  of  re- 

"  Collections  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  2nd  series,  volume  4,  page  87. 
M  Collections  of  the  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  Vol.  5,  page  409. 
M  J.  P.  Wickersham,  first  chapter  of  his  Hist.  Ed.  in  Pa. 
"Dunshee,  page  62  of  Hist.  School  Dutch  Reformed  Church  in 
New  York. 

14  J.  P.  Wickersham,  page  228  of  his  Hist.  Ed.  in  Pa. 


Elementary  Course.  27 

ligion  and  civil  truths  and  duties  as  the  Socratic  or  cate- 
chetic  way"  was  all  that  was  necessary  for  the  ordinary  run 
of  his  fellow  mortals — an  early  instance  of  aristocratic  feel- 
ing in  education.  On  down  in  the  South,  in  Virginia,  the 
same  general  educational  road  was  followed  with  some  side 
excursions  such  as  French  and  Italian  and  novels.25 

Attention  was  paid  to  behavior  or  deportment  especially 
among  the  girls.  It  is  most  likely  that  Coote's  English 
School  Master  was  pretty  well  known  to  some  of  the 
teachers,  with  its  numerous  stanzas  forming  practically  a 
school  code.  Certainly  the  duty  to  God  and  to  parents  and  to 
all  that  were  considered  superior  was  properly  emphasized. 
Not  only  were  the  children  told  to  be  "mannerly"  but  the 
points  of  dress  were  mentioned  such  as  to  have  their  clothes 
buttoned,  their  hose  gartered,  their  handkerchiefs  in  readi- 
ness, to  wash  their  hands  and  faces,  their  shoes  tied  and 
their  shirt  bands  pinned,  because  "slovenly  in  your  array" 
"I  must  have  a  fray."  It  was  in  the  same  strain  that  a  Ger- 
man, Dock,  had  "one  hundred  necessary  rules  of  conduct" — 
perhaps  the  first  American  book  of  etiquette,  as  it  came  out 
in  I764.26 

Human  progress  is  painfully  slow  not  so  much  because 
people  do  not  know  what  they  should  do  but  because  their 
will  is  too  weak.  In  that  primitive  period  a  few  keen 
sighted  men  urged  manual  training,  the  learning  of  a  4:rade, 
so  that  pupils  could  be  fitted  to  make  their  way  in  life,  and 
yet  over  two  hundred  years  slipped  by  before  we  see  any 
general  application  of  their  views.  John  Locke  had  put  this 
in  his  curriculum,  it  had  also  been  called  for  by  tha<t  earnest 
soul,  George  Fox,  the  Quaker,  it  had  been  indirectly  advo- 
cated in  Virginia  in  binding  out  an  orphan  to  some  manual 
trade,  it  had  been  linked  with  reading  and  writing  in  New 
York  when  a  widow  got  married  again  and  her  new  husband 

"Tyler's  Quarterly,  July,  1897. 

*J.  P.  Wickersham,  History  of  Education  in  Pennsylvania, 
page  225. 


28  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

contracted  to  give  a  certain  amount  of  education  to  her  chil- 
dren. The  road  was  pointed  out  by  keen  vision  but  our 
forefathers  could  not  be  induced  to  walk  in  it.  That  allied 
subject,  physical  culture,  had  substantially  hardly  a  germ  in 
those  days,  in  fact  there  wasn't  time  for  it  nor  was  there 
much  need.  Demands  of  frontier  existence  gave  as  much 
muscular  exercise  as  the  most  were  capable  of. 

But  these  lists  so  readily  penned  by  officials  and  authors 
carried  an  infinity  of  pain  and  toil  for  the  childish  brain, 
which  at  this  interval  must  be  largely  imagined,  assisted  by 
the  data  which  can  be  gathered. 

A — B — C — DARIANS. 

Stretching  back  through  epochs  the  road  was  smoothed 
out  by  myriads  of  little  feet  beginning  with  the  alphabet, 
which  at  the  start  consisted  of  a  sheet  of  parchment  nailed 
on  a  board.  Afterwards  followed  the  Hornbook,  the 
Primer,  then  the  Metric  Psalter.  Some  tiny  ABC  books 
have  been  preserved,  very  interesting  miniatures  a  couple 
of  inches  long,  one  inch  wide,  with  some  eight  or  ten  pages 
showing  the  alphabet  and  little  verses  such  as 

"The   owl's    delight 
Is  to  hoot  at  night."  * 

Many  can  now  remember  what  an  awful  effort  it  was  af- 
ter weary  days  and  weeks  to  impress  upon  their  memory  the 
names  and  shapes  of  these  twenty-four  characters.  Teachers 
and  philosophers  fel«t  this  burden  and  sought  to  devise  ways 
to  lighten  it.  That  educational  reformer,  Basedow,  made 
letters  of  gingerbread  and  offered  them  as  a  reward  as  soon 
as  the  alphabet  was  mastered.  John  Locke  with  his  rare 
insight  devised  blocks  of  24  and  25  sides  with  a  letter  pasted 
on  each  and  used  them  as  dice  in  a  game  so  that  the  infant 

"There  are  about  a  dozen  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  with 
some  of  the  librarian's  correspondence  showing  his  suspicion  that 
they  may  have  been  reprints  and  not  original  copies.  The  paper 
seems  very  modern. 


Elementary  Course.  29 

intellect  would  grasp  the  alphabet  as  a  pleasant  pastime. 
From  this  he  would  go  on  to  the  combinations  into  words 
and  thus  tempt  the  child  as  a  recreation  and  not  as  a  task. 

THE  HORNBOOK. 

The  Assyrian  clay  tile  with  letters  scratched  on  it  is  per- 
haps the  earliest  germ  of  our  school  books  today,  later  re- 
placed by  the  wax  tablets  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  finally 
the  slip  of  paper  on  some  solid  surface.  But  from  the  mid- 
dle ages  far  into  the  i8th  century  the  equipment  for  the  first 
year  or  so  at  school  was  the  Hornbook,  a  sheet  of  paper 
pasted  on  a  flat  piece  of  wood  and  covered  with  transparent 
horn  so  as  to  save  the  printing  underneath.  With  a  handle  at 
one  end  it  resembled  a  paddle  and  from  the  accounts  that 
have  come  down  to  us  was  often  used  for  that  purpose  as  a 
means  of  punishing  refractory  pupils,  dividing  that  duty 
with  a  switch.  Fancy  and  taste  soon  ran  riot  with  forms 
and  designs  so  that  there  were  handsome  carved  ones,  for 
the  rich  and  very  plain,  even  uncovered  ones,  for  the  poor. 
Towards  the  end  of  its  career  it  blossomed  into  the  battle- 
dore, stiff  cardboard  with  a  flap  folded  down  at  each  side, 
making  in  fact  three  leaves,  having  lost  all  semblance  of 
that  instrument.  The  hornbook  at  its  birth  was  a  battle- 
dore but  philological  perversity  made  the  unseemly  swap  of 
cognomens,  and  gave  us  this  monstrosity  of  a  term  not  at 
all  descriptive  of  the  thing  it  is  applied  to.  But  all  of  both 
types  had  substantially  the  same  features,  an  alphabet,  Lord's 
Prayer,  with  verses  either  moral  or  scriptural,  and  mostly 
some  stanzas  of  poetry  for  the  memory.  At  the  top  on  the 
first  side  with  some  came  the  biblical  emblem  of  the  Cross 
which  in  common  language  was  soon  referred  to  as  criss- 
cross— Christ's  Cross.  Others  had  little  pictures  around  the 
four  margins  to  impress  the  letters  on  the  memory  as :  B — 
Bear:  H — Horse:  O — Owl:  etc.  A  still  further  aid  was  a 
row  of  nonsense  jingles  thus : 


30  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

"Art  we  add 
Ben  is  bad 
Cat  she  can 
Dad  or  dan     • 
Ear  and  eye 
Fat  may  fly 
Go  to  gad 
Him  he  had 
Inn  for  jay 
Ken  the  key 
Let  him  lop 
My  old  mop 
Now  we  nod 
Oar  so  odd 
Pen  and  pin 
Quit  or  quin 
Rue  the  rat 
Sad  she  sat 
Top  we  turn 
Use  the  urn 
Von  no  van 
Who  is  wan 
Xen  did  vex 
Ye  may  yex 
Zeal  for  zest 
and  may  rest" 

A  monument  of  research  has  been  given  up  to  this  simple 
pedagogical  help  and  two  portly  volumes  show  the  results.  2s 
The  subject  is  worth  all  of  this  investigation  too.  That  plain 
simple  little  slip  of  wood  in  its  original  state  represented  at 
that  time  the  long  list  of  books  and  supplies  that  are  re- 
quired in  our  primary  schools  at  the  present  day.  Here  the 
contrast  stands  in  parallel  columns  with  the  Hornbook  pre- 

88  A.  W.  Tuer's  History  of  the  Horn-Book,  1896. 


Elementary  Course. 


empting  all  the  left  hand  and  a  stout  array  of  items  of  to- 
day filling  the  right  hand  one: 


FOR     COL- 
ONIAL DAYS. 


HORNBOOK 


PRIMARY  SCHOOLS  TODAY.  (Boston) 

The  Finch  Primer 

Stepping  Stones  to  Literature  $i 

$2 


Cyr's  The  Children's  Primer 

The  Werner  Primer 

Progressive  Course  in  Reading,  First  Book 

"     "        "          Second     " 

,,     ,,        „          Third      ,, 

Franklin  Primer  and  First  Reader 

Second  Reader. 

Advanced  Second  Reader. 

Third  Reader 

Primary  Arthmetic 

American  System  of  Music,  Reader  $i 
McLaughlin  &  Veazie's  Introductory  Music 

Reader 

National  Music  Course,  New  First  Reader 
Normal       "          "         First  Reader 
Natural      "  "          Primer 

McLaughlin  &  Veazie's  Introductory  Music 

Reader 

Educational  Music  Reader,  $i 
First  Lessons  in  Natural  History  and 

Language 

Two  number  work  blocks 
Drawing  Pencils 
Common  lead  pencils 
Rubber  j 

Paper 
I  Clay 


32  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

This  little  exhibit  is  an  epitome  of  civilization  for  these 
two  or  three  centuries.  But  this  flowering  is  all  rooted  back 
to  the  hornbook.  That  meagre  help  had  figures,  spelling, 
reading,  and  its  little  verses  were  likely  intoned.  In  fact, 
reading  in  medieval  days  was  only  taught  as  an  end  to  music 
in  many  cases  at  any  rate, — "to  teach  a  child  to  help  a  priest 
to  sing."  Such  schools  had  "chanting,  reading  and  writ- 
ing."29 They  generally  disappeared  as  their  special  aim  was 
enveloped  in  the  religious  atmosphere  of  education. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PRIMER. 

Supplanting  the  Hornbook  which  tasted  too  strongly  of  a 
state  church  came  the  New  England  primer,  "the  school 
book  of  the  dissenters  of  America,"  reprinted  time  after 
time  for  nearly  two  centuries,  reaching  an  average  annual 
sale  of  20,000  copies,  and  a  total  one  of  over  3,000,000,  even 
coming  down  so  near  to  us  as  an  edition  in  1886,  but  one  of 
the  rarest  books  in  existence  in  spite  of  this  numerous  cir- 
culation.30 It  is  really  an  enlargement  of  the  Hornbook, 
being  constructed  along  these  same  religious  lines.  It 
reaches  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  time  as  people  con- 
sidered the  matter  then.  Of  course  theology  had  to  lay  the 
foundation,  starting  with  the  couplet, 
"In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all" 

and  bringing  in  such  history  touches 
Zaccheus  he 
Did  climb  a  tree 
Our  Lord  to  see" 

but  morality  followed  hard  in  such  solemn  warnings  as 
"A  dog  will  bite 
A  thief  at  night" 

"A.  F.  Leach,  pages  70,  105,  of  his  English  Schools  at  Reforma- 
tion. 

80  P.  L.  Ford's  edition  is  a  most  learned  account  of  this  most 
remarkable  textbook  in  American  history. 


Elementary  Course.  33 

The  bulk  of  it  was  composed  of  extracts  from  the  Bible  of 
hymns  and  of  moral  teachings.  Even  the  largest  of  them 
contained  only  a  few  pages  but  it  is  a  strain  on  the  imagina- 
tio.n  to  realize  that  this  thin  little  volume  did  the  service  of 
half  a  dozen  readers  at  the  present  day  . 

READING. 

.  For  many  years  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Hornbook  and 
primer  were  about  as  far  as  the  bulk  of  the  children  espec- 
ially girls,  ever  went  on  the  road  towards  easy  reading.  But 
for  those  who  wished  to  climb  higher  there  was  the  infallible 
refuge  of  the  Bible,  and  advanced  classes  used  this  as  a 
regular  reading  book.  31  As  time  passed  on  there  were  other 
aids  such  as  Benezet's  primer,  constructed  of  the  same 
ecclesiastical  material  and  patterned  closely  after  those  great 
prototypes,  followed  with  pious  reflections  and  endless  mor- 
alizings  about  goodness  and  piety  and  virtue  and  kindred 
ideas.  Some  of  these  also  mixed  in  a  little  grammar  and 
arithmetic.  But  none  got  very  far  from  the  religious  at- 
mosphere. About  the  middle  of  the  i8th  century  Franklin 
recommended  Croxall's  Fables,  a  tedious  book,  and  Fox's 
Primer  was  used  by  the  Quakers  having  been  published  in 
Philadelphia  fifty  years  earlier.32  There  is  a  very  interest- 
ing delightful  one  in  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  in- 
tended to  cover  the  whole  scheme  of  knowledge  from  the 
alphabet  on  through  the  elementary  grades,  ranging  from 
words  of  one  syllable  on  up  to  those  of  five  and  six,  with  a 
mixture  of  grammar,  arithmetic,  spelling  and  reading.  The 
youthful  mind  was  to  be  impressed  early  in  life  with  the 
awfulness  of  existence.  One  extract  from  the  earlier  por- 
tions will  show  the  heavy  solemnity  of  the  entire  product: 
"Lord  what  is  man:  Originally  dust,  engendered  in  sin, 

81  Bouton,  in  New  Ham.  Hist.  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  4. 
"Wickersham,  page  27,  Hist.  Ed.  in  Pa. 
3 


34  Our  Colonial  Curriculum, 

brought  forth  with  sorrow,  helpless  in  his  infancy,  extrava- 
gantly wild  in  his  youth,  mad  in  his  manhood,  decrepid  in 
his  age :  his  first  voice  moves  pity,  his  last  commands 
grief."38 

SPELLING. 

There  is  evidence  that  up  to  perhaps  1700  or  even  later 
there  was  no  regular  spelling  book,  all  the  training  in  that 
exercise  being  taken  from  the  reading  lessons.34  Later  came 
regular  books  for  that  purpose,  one  of  the  most  widely  used 
being  Dilworth's,  about  the  middle  of  the  i8th  century. 
They  all  were  a  jumble  of  the  Bible,  morality,  and  religion 
luxuriously  interladed  with  the  alphabet  and  with  words  of 
i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  and  more  syllables.  When  it  came  to  longer 
ones,  the  pedant  and  the  preacher  vied  with  one  another  in 
such  words  as  "cocolico,"  "euroclydon,"  and  "antitrini- 
tarian."  It  was  such  hopelessly  unfit  specimens  that  youthful 
tongues  had  to  stumble  over  until  Noah  Webster  earned 
the  gratitude  of  all  with  his  blue  black  spelling  book,  which 
is  an  opulent  enlargement  of  the  New  England  Primer,  but 
did  not  come  into  use  until  after  the  close  of  the  period  this 
study  aims  to  cover. 

WRITING. 

The  passion  for  beautiful  handwriting  was  inherited  from 
the  painful  copyists  of  the  middle  ages.  It  was  besides  a 
necessity  to  make  plain  letters  because  many  of  the  pupils 
had  only  their  dictation  exercises  in  some  studies  as  text- 
books. An  English  authority  declared  "to  write  is  in  com- 
mon life  necessary  and  to  write  well  commendable."  35  He 
took  a  very  serious  view  of  the  matter  and  thought  that  a 
legible  hand  seems  to  carry  with  it  some  respect  to  the 

33  Youth's  Instructor,  Boston,  1757,  p.  47. 
**  Bouton,  New  Hampshire  Historical  Society,  Vol.  4. 
"Christopher  Wase,  page   107  of  his   Considerations  Concerning 
Free  Schools,  Oxford,  England,   1678. 


Elementary  Course.  35 

reader  and  easy  flourishes  in  their  places  add  grace,  distinc- 
tion, sometimes  dignity.  Aside  from  this  hard  common 
sense  he  expanded  liberally  on  different  styles  of  hands 
such  as  the  "Italian  Cursire"  and  "Court  hand"  and 
"abbridgments."  This  last  was  an  important  concern  owing 
to  the  universal  methods  of  note  taking  in  the  higher  insitu- 
tions.  The  American  teachers  followed  this  general  road  and 
rather  early  in  the  i8th  century  began  to  pay  attention  to 
this  branch  of  study,  Thomas  Hill  getting  out  "the  young 
secretary's  guide"  in  Boston  in  1730.  Later  on  came  the  use- 
less refinements  which  have  filtered  down  to  the  present  day. 
A  certain  fellow,  John  Jenkins,  writing  master,  issued  a 
most  intricate  analysis  of  the  lines,  hooks,  and  curves  of  let- 
ters, following  this  with  laborious  rules  for  combining  these 
elements  into  symmetrical  characters.  Perhaps  he  was  in 
earnest,  perhaps  he  was  shrewdly  trying  to  disguise  the  pill 
when  he  stated  on  his  title  page  that  it  was  "a  plain  easy 
and  familar  introduction  to  the  art."  Paper  was  dear  and 
birch  bark  was  perhaps  as  handy  as  birch  switches.  In  some 
of  the  country  schools  at  least  this  skin  stripped  from  the 
tree  took  the  place  of  our  copy  books  now.86  But  in  spite 
of  these  directions  and  these  make-shifts  only  a  small  por- 
tion learned  to  sign  their  names  The  larger  number  had  to 
fall  back  upon  the  vulgar  practice  of  making  a  cross.37  In 
other  cases  the  stern  insistence  of  economy  in  time  and  ma- 
terial worked  its  way  in  giving  us  some  of  the  most  vexa- 
tious specimens  of  cramped  writing  to  be  found.  Some  of 
the  diaries  and  some  of  the  lectures  on  the  shelves  of  li- 
braries in  New  England  would  harass  the  soul  and  try  the 
temper  of  the  most  benign  among  us.  When  this  same  care- 
lessness is  embalmed  in  Latin  words  many  of  which  are  con- 
tracted the  student  almost  wishes  that  none  of  them  had 
ever  learned  to  sign  their  names 

"  Bouton,  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  1833. 
"  Felt,  Ipswich,  page  90. 


36  •  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

CIPHERING. 

It  is  very  likely  that  the  forests  near  by  throughout  the 
most  of  the  colonies  furnished  the  surface  for  the  small 
hands  "to  do  sums"  upon  when  they  could  not  get  the  backs 
of  old  letters  and  the  margins  of  printed  pages.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  there  was  not  much  figuring  done  because  it  was 
the  custom  then  not  to  tackle  the  science  of  numbers  until 
the  child  could  read.  Whatever  of  arithmetic  was  attempted 
in  these  lower  grades  was  purely  mechanical  and  utilitarian. 
People  then  had  very  little  time  for  anything  except  the  hard 
problem  of  making  a  living.  "Casting  accounts"  was  an  aid 
to  that  and  hence  all  of  the  arithmetic  was  done  along  that 
road  largely.  No  great  stress  was  laid  upon  it  before  enter- 
ing college.  Even  there  it  was  largely  a  matter  of  manu- 
script labor,  transcribing  from  the  teacher's  directions.  Sev- 
eral of  these  helps  are  preserved  and  the  writing  is  large, 
round  and  clear,  unfaded  after  these  centuries. 

"Fuss  SCHOOLS." 

There  were  almost  as  many  names  for  the  school  as  there 
were  subjects  taught..  They  were  referred  to  as  "Latin 
grammar  schools,"  "grammar  schools,"  "Latin  schools," 
"free  schools,"  and  "public  schools,"  all  meaning  practically 
the  same  thing.  A  vast  amount  of  toilsome  learning  has  been 
expended  over  the  term  "free  school."  In  one  sense  of  the 
word  they  were  emphatically  not  "free"  in  some  instances 
because  they  charged  a  fee.38  It  might  also  mean  "free  tui- 
tion." Again,  an  investigator  holds  that  it  indicated  "free 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  a  superior  corporation."  The  cor- 
responding Latin  phrase  usd  in  the  titles  of  English  schools, 
"libera  schola,"  has  been  tested  with  the  very  acid  of  scholar- 
ship but  no  satisfactory  result  has  been  reached.  Again  it  has 
been  thought  that  the  phrase  threw  wide  open  the  doors  to 

18  Barnard,  Vol.  27  of  American  Journal  of  Education,  page  97. 


Elementary  Course.  37 

the  accessibility  of  all  pupils.  Poor  old  Berkeley  of  Virginia 
has  done  more  to  perpetuate  this  collocation  of  words  than 
all  other  agencies  combined.  He  has  also  projected  his  repu- 
tation far  into  the  centuries  ahead  of  him  and  has  innocently 
been  the  pivot  of  bitter  sectional  discussion.  He  it  was  who 
thanked  God  that  Virginia  had  no  free  schools.  What  he 
really  had  in  mind  nobody  knows  at  the  present  day.  Cer- 
tainly he  was  not  a  barbarian  opposing  all  knowledge  be- 
cause he  gave  his  own  means  to  encourage  education.  Pro- 
fessor H.  B.  Adams  seems  to  soften  the  case  for  this 
crusty  aristocrat  by  suggesting  that  he  might  have  been  de- 
nouncing too  much  attention  to  the  classics  but  this  seems 
rather  faint.  At  any  rate  no  knight  of  the  pen  has  effect- 
ually cleared  up  Berkeley's  memory.  Perhaps  it  is  even 
well  not  to  do  so  as  Berkeley's  reward  will  be  continued  life 
in  history. 

TEACHERS  AND  BOOKS. 

The  Roman  poets  spoke  disdainfully  of  teaching  as  a  very 
low  calling.  Christianity  has  not  dissolved  this  pagan 
contempt,  and  traces  still  survive  in  rather  strong  colors  to 
the  present.  Loafers,  derelicts  in  life,  floating  hulks,  the 
flotsam  and  jetsam  of  society  were  good  enough  to  pound 
learning  into  unwilling  heads.  Indentured  servants,  even 
convicts,  were  seated  at  the  desk  with  book  in  one  hand  and 
rod  in  the  other.  But  conditions  were  no  better  in  the  mother- 
land. Peacham  had  complained  of  the  "general  plague  and 
complaint  of  the  whole  land  that  for  one  discreet  and  able 
teacher  you  shall  find  twenty  ignorant  and  careless."39  The 
whole  world  knows  how  the  Father  of  his  Country  learned 
the  rudiments  from  a  pedagogue  of  very  inferior  rank.  He 
was  not  the  only  Virginian  of  lordly  station  in  that  colony 
that  was  thus  treated.  McCabe  tells  of  a  convict  purchased 
in  Baltimore  and  carried  southward  to  the  sister  locality  for 

88  Eggleston's  Transit,  page  243,  so  quotes. 


38  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

conducting  a  school.40  But  what  awful  difficulties  con- 
fronted even  the  ablest  and  most  earnest !  A  group  of  chil- 
dren, no  two  in  the  same  class,  ranging  in  curriculum  from 
the  alphabet  to  the  Latin  grammar  with  only  unsuitable  text- 
books shipped  across  the  Atlantic  and  above  all  wild,  rude 
and  unruly  in  manner,  ready  to  try  their  strength  at  any 
time  with  the  master these  were  the  frightful  ob- 
stacles that  the  average  teacher  had  to  face  and  overcome 
if  possible. 

WHAT  WAS  ACCOM  PUSHED? 

With  such  drawbacks  critics  could  easily  say  that  "the 
course  of  instruction  was  narrow  and  partial.  Each  hungry 
child  got  a  crust,  but  no  one  had  a  full  meal."  The  whole 
outline  was  "meagre  and  impoverishing,"  only  the  "driest 
husks  of  grammar,"  no  geography,  no  history,  no  reading 
book,  no  slates,  in  fact  Noah  Webster  says  almost  no  books 
except  those  made  by  the  pupils  themselves.41 

There  were  the  greatest  inequalities  of  facilities  and  con- 
sequently the  greatest  difference  of  opinion.  Gov.  Dudley. 
in  1701,  thought  there  was  no  child  ten  years  old  that  could 
not  read  well  and  no  man  of  twenty  that  could  not  write 
well.42  But  the  microscopic  antiquarians  tell  a  different  tale. 
Upham,  the  historian  of  Salem,  who  had  crawled  through 
the  wilderness  of  town  records,  found  enough  to  convince 
him  that  many  in  that  ancient  city  could  not  read.  It  was 
perhaps  to  stay  the  rising  tide  of  ignorance  that  Massachu- 
setts had  passed  the  law  of  1647  calling  for  the  establish- 
ment of  schools  in  every  town.  This  benevolent  intention 
was  not  carried  out,  the  ideal  was  too  high  to  be  reached 
then,  but  the  spirit  of  equality  for  all  then  first  took  legis- 
lative form  and  has  furnished  the  example  for  all  her  sister 

"His  Virginia  Schools,  page  26. 

*  Brooks's   Medford,  page   280.     Also   Barnard's   Amer.   Journal 
of  Educ.,  Vol.  26,  page  195,  and  Vol.  16. 
**  Eggleston's  Transit,  page  267. 


Elementary  Course.  39 

commonwealths.  This  simple  enactment  paved  the  way  for 
the  toleration  for  all  creeds  and  fixed  the  principle  of  a 
central  authority  for  general  education,  but  a  pioneer  light 
had  already  flickered  along  this  path.  John  Knox,  years 
before,  had  a  scheme  for  the  establishing  of  schools  in  every 
locality.  True,  he  had  thought  of  it  only  in  connection  with 
his  own  church.43 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Latin  races  at  the 
present  day  as  being  decadent.  It  may  temper  our  pride  a 
little  to  know  what  one  of  those  nations,  Italy,  had  been  do- 
ing two  centuries  before  this  in  the  same  grade  of  schools. 
The  children  in  that  peninsula  then  had  "reading,  taught  by 
movable  letters ;  arithmetic,  taught  by  games ;  writing  and 
drawing;  the  psalms,  creed,  Lord's  Prayer,  and  Hymn  to 
the  Virgin,  learned  by  heart;  Latin"  in  conversation  and 
history  from  tales,  but  just  as  with  us  the  native  tongue  was 
practically  ignored  as  unworthy  of  school  training. 

THE  VESTIBULE  TO  COLLEGE. 

All  the  classes,  all  the  studies,  the  whole  elementary  ma- 
chinery were  in  bondage  to  the  college, ^swaddling  clothes 
that  the  public  schools  have  not  yet  entirely  cast  off.  The 
ABC  books,  the  Hornbook,  the  Primer,  and  all  were 
traversed  with  the  eye  fixed  upon  the  college  doors.  Latin 
was  the  "be-all  and  end-all"  of  the  teachers'  efforts.4*  So 
soon  as  the  pupils  could  read  they  were  rushed  into 
Cheever's  Accidence,  then  Lilly's  Grammar,  with  its  twenty- 
five  classes  of  nouns,  its  seven  genders,  and  its  thicket  of 
rules,  all  to  be  memorized  by  the  liberal  use  of  the  ferule 
if  necessary.  The  Government  deliberately  gave  its  sanc- 
tion to  this  educational  serfdom  and  imposed  upon  the  locali- 
ties the  task  of  training  youth  "so  as  to  fit  them  for  the 

43  Eggleston's   Transit,  page  232. 

44  G.  H.  Martin's  Massachusetts  Schools,  page  58. 


4O  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

college."  *5  The  municipalities  followed  suit  and  enjoined 
the  erection  of  schools  to  prepare  the  youth  for  college  in 
Latin  and  Greek.  "The  parsons'  schools"  in  Virginia  had 
the  same  solicitude  for  these  ancient  languages. 

But  no  matter  what  the  purpose,  no  matter  what  the  result, 
there  was  the  same  atmosphere  over  it  all.  The  aroma  of 
ecclesiasticism  was  pungent  and  penetrating,  the  catechism 
had  to  be  graven  on  the  memory,  the  preacher  had  to  be 
heard  and  repeated,  "because  all  man's  endeavors  without 
the  blessing  of  God  must  needs  be  fruitless  and  unsuccess- 
ful," and  hence  the  instructor's  chief  duty  was  to  "commend 
his  scholars  and  his  labors  among  them  unto  God." 

It  is  with  the  doxology  and  an  amen  we  close  the  ele- 
mentary school  and  open  the  scriptures  for  a  text  on  the 
all-absorbing  object  of  the  whole  system,  the  college. 

45  Mass.  Records,  May  31,  1671. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  GENERAL,  COLLEGE  COURSE. 

SAVING  OF  SOULS. 

"To  further  the  college  in  piety,  morality  and  learning" 
was  the  spirit  of  the  act  of  the  general  court  of  Massachu- 
setts in  1642,  with  regard  to  the  newly  established  Harvard 
college.  This  was  not  a  piece  of  formality  either,  because 
the  institution  was  designed  to  train  men  for  service  in 
church  and  state,  but  it  was  the  former  that  gave  the  tone 
to  the  entire  place.  The  authorities  impressed  it  upon  the 
students  that  they  were  to  be  the  religious  guides  in  this 
wilderness.  "When  you  are  yourselves  interested  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  his  righteousness,  you  will  be  fit  to 
be  teachers  of  others,"  were  the  solemn  words  of  one  of  the 
early  heads  of  Harvard.46  The  teaching  staff  for  these  pious 
students  had  to  be  sound  in  the  doctrine,  none  to  be  tolerated 
who  were  "unsound  in  the  faith  or  scandalous  in  their  lives, 
and  not  giving  due  satisfaction  according  to  the  rules  of 
Christ."  *7  It  lay  heavy  on  the  minds  of  these  saintly  souls 
that  a  weighty  matter  they  had  not  only  for  themselves,  but 
for  posterity,  in  order  that  there  might  be  "a  prolonging  of 
God's  special  favor."  It  was  to  be  a  school  of  the  prophets, 
no  one  was  to  be  president  except  one  fitted  to  serve  his 
classes  with  divinity  expositions,  who  could  be  "a  faithful 
instrument  to  promote  the  holy  religion  here  practiced  and 
established,  by  instructing  and  fitting  for  our  pulpits  and 
churches  and  public  and  useful  services  such  as  shall  be" 
brought  there  for  study.48  Of  the  total  graduates  for  nearly 

44  Peirce,  History  of  Harvard,  page  24,  referring  to  President 
Chauncey. 

"Mass  Records,  May  3,  1654. 

48  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  second  series,  Vol.  4,  page  64. 


42  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

two  centuries  after  the  foundation  nearly  one-half  were 
clergymen.  Boys  were  publicly  whipt  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  two  prayers  for  using  "blasphemous  words,"  and  the 
privilege  of  "boxing"  them  was  not  formally  repealed 

till  I755- 

A  few  miles  away  at  Yale  was  another  ecclesiastical  cen- 
ter. That  sylvan  sister,  far  southward  on  the  banks  of  the 
James,  also  suffered  the  same  quickening  pains  and  darts  of 
conscience  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  youth.  Amid 
the  trees  of  the  sandy  flats,  William  and  Mary  College 
yearned  and  tossed  over  the  mighty  question  of  pointing 
the  little  colony  the  road  to  Heaven.  Their  zeal  burned 
within  them  to  send  forth  a  corps  of  ministers  so  that  the 
Christian  faith  might  be  propagated  even  amongst  "the 
western  Indians  to  the  glory  of  God."  They  established  a 
college  of  divinity  along  with  the  other  branches  of 
knowledge. 

In  both  quarters  these  harassed  souls  could  congratulate 
themselves  on  having  accomplished  their  purpose,  so  beatific 
and  pure  was  the  atmosphere  of  Cambridge  that  young  men 
came  from  England  to  enjoy  this  flavor  of  "morals  and  re- 
ligion." 49  Both  Mather  and  Meade,  the  one  in  Boston  and 
the  other  in  Williamsburg,  could  record  with  a  glow  of 
fervor  that  persons  had  been  properly  trained  for  the  pulpit. 
But  what  was  still  more  important  for  the  general  interests 
then,  though  these  two  enthusiastic  annalists  did  not  at  all 
realize  it,  these  institutions  also  molded  men  capable  of  lead- 
ing in  affairs  of  state  and  politics.  In  both  places  graduates 
went  forth  to  mount  the  platform,  to  argue  in  mass  meet- 
ings and  to  debate  in  the  legislature. 

But  for  laying  the  foundations,  these  planters  in  the  new 
world  had  to  bring  their  notions  across  the  Atlantic,  to  im- 
port their  principles  from  the  old  home.  Numbers  who  first 
came  over  that  watery  path  had  received  their  diplomas 

*  Peirce,  Hist,  of  Harvard,  pages  8  and  21. 


The  General  College  Course.  43 

before  starting.  It  is  to  Oxford,  to  Cambridge,  to  Dublin, 
to  Edinburgh,  to  the  European  centers  that  we  must  go  if  we 
pierce  to  the  very  bottom  of  these  virgin  universities. 

"AN  ASININE  FEAST  OF  Sow  THISTXES." 

This  is  the  Homeric  splash  given  to  the  university  train- 
ing of  his  day  by  the  ponderous  Milton,  who  perhaps  above 
all  other  English  authors  had  absorbed  the  spirit  of  classical 
culture.  He  knew  what  he  was  talking  about  as  he  had  been 
honored  by  his  alma  mater  and  also  beaten  by  his  instruc- 
tors with  rods. 

The  bill  of  fare  had  been  evolved  for  1400  years  and  was 
the  result  of  finally  blending  two  conceptions.  Greece  stood 
for  the  human  side  of  education,  Christianity  devoted  its 
strength  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  to  be  obtained  by  abne- 
gation and  asceticism.  The  happy  process  had  not  been 
completed  in  Milton's  time.  Through  these  long  ages  pain- 
fully  had  the  road  been  gradually  advanced  from  the  rudest 
element  through  cloistral,  cathedral,  parish,  and  monastery, 
school  eventually  to  the  university,  which  was  the  apex  of 
the  whole.  But  this  last  did  not  push  up  into  view  until  the 
millennial  year  had  slipped  back  into  the  past  by  more  than 
a  century.  For  two  or  three  more  such  limits  of  time  they 
were  scarcely  more  than  respectable  grammar  schools.  They 
had  their  divisions  and  their  departments,  but  there  is  many 
a  pedagogue  at  the  present  day  scattered  through  this  land 
in  little  country  huts  hearing  classes  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest  that  is  doing  the  same  kind  of  work  that  his  fore- 
runners did  more  than  500  years  ago  in  high-sounding  uni- 
versities. Each  professor  was  expected  to  take  a  ba*ch  of 
boys  through  the  entire  course  from  the  bottom  to  the  top 
and  then  go  to  the  bottom  again  and  start  over.50 

They  differed  in  scope,  they  varied  in  their  terms,  they 
changed  their  curriculum,  but  after  all  they  were  torches 

50  Grant,  Edinburgh  University,  Vol.  i,  page  148. 


44  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

feebly  illuminating  the  darkness  around.  They  stood  for  at 
least  two  things,  they  glorified  study  and  they  taught  with 
the  living  voice,  face  to  face  with  the  class.  There  was  prac- 
tically no  science,  no  history,  no  literature,  a  meagre  vest- 
ment for  us  in  the  light  of  to-day,  but  the  rudiments  were 
there  and  out  of  them  have  gradually  sprung  our  luxuriance. 
To  the  most  of  them  all  knowledge  sprouted  from  what  they 
called  philosophy  in  three  branches,  physics,  ethics,  and  logic. 
Each  one  of  these  three  had  prongs.  Physics  divided  into 
arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy.  Ethics  broke 
into  prudence,  justice,  fortitude  and  temperance — all  quali- 
ties of  character  rather  than  subjects  of  knowledge.  Logic 
became  dual  under  dialectics  and  rhetoric,  which  really  were 
nearly  the  same  thing.  In  time  all  these  branches  were 
melted  down  into  the  trivium  and  quadrivium,  that  sound 
very  large  and  learned,  but  were  really  not  equal  to  a  high 
school  in  any  of  our  cities.  When  a  boy  had  gone  through 
these  three,  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  dialects;  then  these 
four,  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy,  and  music,  he  could 
proudly  go  back  to  his  home  as  having  eaten  of  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  having  swallowed  the  two  halves 
which  have  been  characterized  by  an  American  educational 
writer  as  "the  foundation  of  intellectual  education"  and  as 
"relating  mostly  to  nature."51 

At  about  15  years  of  age  he  began  his  university  career, 
it  goes  almost  without  saying,  nibbling  on  the  Latin  roots 
and  the  bulk  of  his  energy  while  there  was  devoted  to  the 
same  tiresome  thing.  Of  Greek  he  got  a  glimpse  and  that 
not  until  late  in  medieval  days.  Of  the  natural  sciences  he 
attempted  little  and  it  would  have  been  far  better  for  him  if 
he  had  not  done  that  much,  as  he  got  only  a  mixture  of 
ignorance,  prejudice,  and  superstition.  His  Latin  enabled 
him  to  put  on  theological  airs,  and  weary  his  brain  and  other 
people's  ears  with  problems  of  logic  and  ethics.  Thus  ran 

51  W.  T.  Harris,  in  introduction  to  Laurie's  Univs.,  page  VII. 


The  General  College  Course.  45 

the  general  medieval  stream,  but  more  pertinent  to  us  are 
the  rivulets  in  the  little  islands  to  the  west  of  Europe. 

THE  COURSE  AT  DUBUN. 

In  this  Irish  institution  in  the  seventeenth  century  there 
were  four  classes,  or  one  for  each  year,  studying  Latin, 
Greek,  and  the  sciences.  The  first  year  had  logic  and  the 
Isagoge  of  Porphyry;  the  second  had  Aristotle's  Organon; 
the  third  browsed  in  Aristotle's  physics,  and  the  fourth  in 
the  same  writer's  metaphysics  and  ethics.  They  thus  spent 
their  strength  on  the  work  of  this  great  Grecian.  In  addition 
to  the  central  core  they  had  lectures  in  science,  but  of  what 
nature  can  only  be  surmised  here.  Very  likely  it  was  only  a 
rehash  of  some  of  the  crumbs  of  Aristotle.  There  were  also 
regular  exercises  in  the  translation  of  Latin  into  English 
and  lectures  on  Greek  three  times  weekly.  But  the  cream 
of  the  whole  curriculum  was  disputation  first  on  logical 
themes  and  second  on  philosophical  and  metaphysical.  It 
was  expected  that  all  should  talk  Latin  and  at  intervals  each 
student  was  required  to  give  declamations  in  the  two  clas- 
sical tongue.52 

AT  EDINBURGH. 

We  have  available  more  definite  information  about  this 
Scottish  school  than  about  Dublin  at  the  same  time,  but 
there  is  an  exact  correspondence  in  the  number  of  years  and 
in  the  emphasis  laid  upon  Aristotle  and  the  attention  paid  to 
the  ancient  languages. 

In  the  first  year  they  read  Isocrates,  Homer,  Hesiod, 
Cicero,  and  Phocyllides,  besides  there  was  Ramus  in  dia- 
lects. 

In  the  second  year  came  a  review  of  the  first  with  the  ad- 
dition of  rhetoric  from  such  authors  as  Talaeus,  Cassander; 

M  Stubbs's  Dublin  University,  page  139. 


46  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

and  Aphthonius.  The  Organon  of  Aristotle  appears  as  one 
of  the  formal  branches.  Arithmetic  is  also  mentioned. 

In  the  third  year  came  the  Hebrew  grammar,  with  more 
advanced  dialects  and  rhetoric,  and  some  human  anatomy. 

In  the  fourth  year  a  cursory  view  was  taken  of  the  three 
preceding  ones,  with  astronomy,  chiefly  from  Aristotle  either 
directly  or  secondarily. 

That  quibbling  machine,  disputation,  was  of  course  in 
constant  use  all  the  time  to  sharpen  the  verbal  wits  of  the 
students.  Superiority  was  claimed  in  having  Aristotle  in  the 
original  and  not  in  Latin  translation  and  also  in  paying  more 
attention  to  style  in  the  use  of  these  two  mediums  and  in  the 
use  of  a  modernized  logic.  But  the  important  examination 
tests  were  based  almost  entirely  upon  Aristotle,  with 
Ramus's  dialectics,  and  some  astronomy.  It  will  be  readily 
noted  that  a  thin  gruel  was  provided  as  practically  there  was 
no  mathematics  except  the  most  elementary  sort,  and  no 
history,  and  no  science  properly  called.52 

AT  OXFORD. 

At  Oxford  tfre  same  threads  run.  There  were  Porphyry 
and  Aristotle,  rhetoric,  dialectics,  physics,  morals,  and  the 
/same  endless  disputations  and  formal  declamations.  As  the 
main  object  of  the  college  was  to  fit  for  the  ministry — 
"ad  finalem  ^a€ra&  theologiae  professionem" — it  goes  almost 
without  saying  that  there  were  courses  in  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment, that  there  were  daily  prayers  early  and  late,  very 
numerous  on  Sundays  and  festivals,  with  catechisms  on  the 
creed,  Lord's  Prayer,  Thirty-nine  Articles,  etc.,  and  an  in- 
junction, which  we  may  well  believe  was  well  carried  out, 
to  listen  to  all  the  university  sermons. 

To  become  a  bachelor  of  arts  required  four  years  in  dia- 
lects, rhetoric,  Greek,  Latin,  one  gospel,  with  summaries  of 
Aristotle's  Topics  and  Posterior  Analytics  or  Elenchi.  To 

"Grant's  Edinburgh  University,  Vol.  i,  page  153. 


The  General  College  Course.  47 

become  a  master  of  arts  the  student  had  to  spend  three 
years  more  floundering  in  natural  and  moral  philosophy, 
rhetoric,  in  the  meantime  bandying  speech  with  his  fellows 
in  disputations,  winding  up  all  with  a  Latin  summary  of 
some  dull  treatise  with  his  preface  in  Greek.  Throughout 
he  was  to  talk  Latin,  Greek  or  Hebrew — the  very  thing  we 
are  pretty  sure  he  did  not  do  except  on  parade  occasions. 

AT  CAMBRIDGE. 

(The  statutes  of  Queen  Elizabeth  provided  very  broadly 
for  a  four  years'  course,  covering  rhetoric  in  the  first  year, 
dialectics  in  the  second  and  third  years,  with  philosophy  in 
the  fourth,  and  with  public  disputations  twice  in  the  last 
year.  It  may  be  safely  assumed  that  private  exercises  in 
this  last  went  on  with  unabated  frequency  and  vigor  during 
the  other  three  years.54 

A  most  indefatigable  historian  of  Cambridge  says  that 
Latin  was  almost  the  only  branch  here,  certainly  in  the 
grammar  course,  in  the  century  preceding  the  decree  of 
Elizabeth.  The  authors  followed  were  mainly  Terence, 
Boethius,  Orosius,  with  the  grammarians  Priscian  and 
Donatus.55  But  we  can  hardly  trust  that  matters  were  any 
better  even  up  to  1600.  A  little  before  that  time,  Caius  col- 
lege insisted  that  Latin  be  a  test  for  admission  to  its  walls, 
as  there  was  a  kind  of  nervous  dread  lest  "the  university 
should  become  a  grammar  school,  a  name  by  which  it  is 
already  designated  to  the  detriment  of  its  fame.66 

/  There  were  observers  and  there  were  critics  trying  to  im- 
prove the  educational  environment.  The  great  Lord  Bacon 
turned  his  eye  upon  the  training  there  and  penned  his  stric- 
tures. He  thought  that  the  staff  had  too  small  compensa- 

"Qocuments  of  Cambridge,  3  volumes,  1852,  Vol.  I,  page  459, 
in  Latin. 

MJ.  B.  Mullinger's  University  of  Cambridge,  page  341. 
**  J.  B.  Mullinger's  Cambridge,  Vol.  2,  page  163. 


48  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

tion ;  that  the  professions  were  unduly  emphasized ;  that  the 
standard  was  so  low  as  to  allow  unripe  students  to  enter; 
that  the  discipline  was  one-sided,  building  too  much  on  the 
memory,  and  that  above  all  the  faults  was  the '  stimulus 
given  to  theological  strife,  encouraging  "private  emulations 
and  discontentments."57  More  detailed  was  John  Webster 
in  1654,  when  he  delivered  censures  along  the  entire  line,  all 
thoughtful  and  most  endorsed  by  posterity. 

OTHER  COURSES. 

Although  we  have  steam  and  the  electric  current  to-day, 
it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  curriculum  is  near  so  uniform 
in  the  different  countries  now  as  it  was  in  those  days.  The 
mighty  university  of  Paris  had  dialectics,  rhetoric,  and  sub- 
stantially the  same  portions  of  Aristotle  as  we  find  in  her 
sisters,  with  the  same  Latin  grammarians. 
/Jt  will  help  to  throw  light  upon  the  university  studies,  to 
glance  at  courses  of  different  grades  and  different  purposes. 
The  oldest,  the  most  widely  extended  of  ifeese,. other  educa- 
tional influences  were  the  Christian  schools  that  kept  the 
flame  of  literature  feebly  burning  throughout  the  darkest  of 
all  the  ages.  Originally  and  largely  throughout  their  career, 
their  motive  was  to  prepare  for  the  ministry.  Beginning 
with  memorizing  the  Latin  psalter  they  had  writing,  sing- 
ing, arithmetic,  Greek,  canon  law,  and  logic,  astronomy,  and 
musi^and  other  quadrivial  subjects.  The  mathematics  were 
chiefly  for  assistance  in  calculating  the  church  festivals. 
Latin  was  the  main  dish  though  usually  the  Roman  writers 
were  not  much  used,  strength  being  placed  upon  the  early 
Christian  authors.  It  was  the  vehicle  for  the  ideas  of  all 
the  other  subjects  and  was  required  in  daily  conversation. 
A  very  curious  development  in  some  instances  was  letter 
writing  based  upon  the  epistles  of  Cicero.  It  is  perhaps 

"  J.  B.  Mullinger's  Cambridge,  page  437. 


The  General  College  Course.  49 

to  that  root  may  be  traced  the  six  formal  heads  of  our  letters 
to-day,  as  those  early  instructors  had  six  divisions :  saluta- 
tio,  captatio,  benevolentia,  narratio,  petitio  and  conclusio 

But  the  heart  to  which  all  the  blood  streams  flowed  was 
religion — "all  these  studies  had  '  in  view  one  object,  the 
proper  understanding  of  holy  scripture  in  the  study  of  the 
scriptures  themselves  and  of  such  of  the  Fathers  as  could  be 
got  (or  extracts  from  them),  was  the  governing  subject  in 
the  whole  scholastic  system.  Every  subject  was  estimated 
by  its  bearing  on  the  Bible  and  limited  by  the  needs  of  the 
theologian."  58 

Even  such  an  avowedly  theological  course  as  that  pro- 
vided by  the  greatest  of  all  religious  organizers,  Loyola,  fol- 
lowed nearly  in  the  same  grooves.  These  earnest  dog- 
matizers  had  grammar,  some  Greek,  rhetoric,  philosophy, 
with  mathematics  and  the  merest  tags  of  science  and  history 
brought  in  incidentally.  They  played  on  two  cords  only, 
Latin  and  Jesuit  theology,  and  were  highly  successful  in 
both. 

It  mattered  little  which  side  educational  reformers  were 
on  of  that  great  upheaval  injected  into  European  life  by 
Luther,  the  school  subjects  were  cast  almost  in  the  same 
mold.  Melanchthon  devised  a  very  full  and  successful  one 
for  his  period  and  yet  it  was  memorizing  Latin,  talking 
Latin,  reading  Latin,  versifying  Latin,  reciting  from  the 
Bible,  singing  hymns,  with  rhetoric  which  was  really  Latin, 
without  mathematics,  without  natural  philosophy. 

It  is  a  tedious  iteration  but  a  very  significant  one  to  show 
what  was  the  conception  in  a  secondary  school  in  England 
founded  by  the  government.  The  Ipswich  school,  provided 
for  by  Wolsey's  statutes,  about  1550,  had  eight  classes 
After  the  two  preliminary  ones  the  others  went  as  follows : 
The  third  studied  JEsop,  Terence,  the  fourth  had  Virgil,  the 

M  S.  S.  Laurie,  page  63  of  his  Rise  of  Universities. 
4 


50  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

fifth  had  Cicero's  letters,  the  sixth  had  Caesar's  Commen- 
taries, the  seventh  had  Horace's  Epistles  and  Ovid's  Meta- 
morphoses with  Latin  versification,  the  eighth  finished  Lilly's 
grammar  and  began  Donatus,  reading  Valla,  Terence,  and 
other  ancient  authors.  As  a  very  remarkable  glance  for 
centuries  ahead,  we  find  English  composition  in  the  shape 
of  essays  and  precis  writing.59 

THE  TEXT  BOOKS. 

Throughout  the  long  stretch  in  which  Christianity  had 
been  gradually  developing  its  educational  system,  besides 
Latin  and  the  Bible,  "the  great  repertories  of  higher  instruc- 
tion in  the  middle  ages"  were  Cassiodorus,  Isidorus,  Mar- 
tianus  Capella,  Boethius,  the  Latin  Categories,  Porphyry, 
and  Alcuin's  compendium  of  logic.60  Under  the  rise  of 
humanism  Aristotle  became  the  center  of  the  intellectual 
sphere  and  upon  him  were  based  a  number  of  secondary 
authorities.  Very  slowly  were  the  investigations  and  con- 
clusions of  such  men  of  science  as  Copernicus  and  Galileo 
made  available  for  pedagogical  use.  In  theology  a  tower  of 
strength  was  Peter  Lombard  with  his  "sentences."  To 
Isidorus  perhaps  belongs  the  credit  of  originating  encyclo- 
pedias, as  he  really  summed  up  virtually  all  knowledge  in 
his  day.61 

It  is  a  weary  survey  for  centuries  as  there  was  no  prog- 
ress, only  a  distressing  tread-mill  tramp.  Decade  after  de- 
cade, century  after  century  was  practically  the  same  repeti- 
tion even  to  the  extent  of  every  phrase  and  word.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  impart  life  to  the  stagnation  by  dis- 
putation, but  as  the  contestants  were  rigidly  held  within 
premises  of  pure  presumption  that  none  dare  question,  but 
little  life  was  afforded. 

M  A.  F.  Leach,  English  Schools  at  Reformation,  Part  i,  page  107. 
90  S.  S.  Laurie,  Rise  of  Universities,  page  61. 
ei  Isidorus  died  636. 


The  General  College  Course.  51 

PHYSICAL  INCENTIVES. 

The  most  enthusiastic  instructor  must  have  felt  utter 
despondency  of  soul,  and  it  may  have  been  due  as  much  to 
the  deadening  dullness  as  to  the  roughness  of  the  pupils  that 
even  university  students  had  to  be  whipped  to  their  tasks. 
The  colossal  Milton  was  treated  to  this  baculine  stimulant. 
Even  Fellows  at  Oxford  were  rapped  on  their  fingers  and 
it  was  not  infrequent  for  the  teachers  to  beat  their  pupils 
and  even  authors  sometimes  had  fisticuffs  with  each  other. 
A  great  head  master  was  accustomed  to  bring  out  the  great 
talents  in  sulky  boys  by  profuse  switching.  It  is  only  natural 
that  such  customs  should  produce  a  wild  noisy  crowd 
"Bubbeing"  beer  in  "a  dingy,  horrid,  scandalous  ale  house" 
and  that  there  should  arise  discussions  as  to  whether  it  was 
good  style  to  indulge  in  such  drinks,  with  a  final  decision  bv 
the  head  at  an  Oxford  college  that  the  boys  may  guzzle  ale 
and  "be  sots  by  authority."  62 

THE  COURSE  AT  HARVARD. 

Out  of  this  medieval  soil,  compounded  of  religion,  classical 
fetichism  and  the  scrapings  of  science,  came  the  curriculum 
at  Harvard  University,  the  first  in  America,  taking  its  start 
in  1638.  It  may  help  to  give  a  rough  schedule  made  up 
from  the  earliest  regulations  that  can  be  found,  indicating 
at  a  glance  the  different  subjects  and  the  order  in  which  they 
came  weekly  and  anuually  as  follows: 

82  Prideauxs's  Letters,  Vol.  15,  Camden  Society  Publications. 
"Swigging  beer"  still  survives  in  these  old  English  Universities  if 
we  may  trust  a  letter  on  the  Rhodes  Scholarship  in  the  Independent 
during  April,  1906. 


Owr  Colonial  Curriculum. 


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The  General  College  Course.  53 

"LAWS"  FOR  1642.   A 


It  will  help  to  an  understanding  of  the  above  to  take  a 
short  survey  of  the  rules  of  1642.  There  were  nineteen  of 
them,  every  one  bearing  upon  religion  and  conduct  except 
five,  impressing  it  upon  the  young  student  that  it  is  "the 
main  end  of  his  life  and  studies  to  know  God  and  Jesus 
Christ,"  that  he  «hall  pray  in  secret  for  guidance  and  shall 
read  the  scriptures  twice  daily,  keep  away  from  men  of 
"ungirt  and  dissolute  life"  and—repeat  sermons  whenever 
called  upon  to  do  so  in  the  Hall.  As  for  the  literary  side  of 
his  career,  he  is  to  be  admitted  to  college  when  "able  to  read 
Tully,  or  such  like  classical  authors  extempore  and  make 
and  speak  through  Latin  in  verse  and  prose  sua  (ut  aiunt) 
marte  and  decline  perfectly  the  paradigms  of  nouns  and 
verbs  in  the  Greek  tongue."  During  his  subsequent  stay 
at  the  university  he  and  his  fellows  shall  "never  use  their 
mother  tongue"  except  when  specially  allowed  on  some  pub- 
lic occasion.  Finally,  he  shall  receive  his  first  degree  when 
"able  to  read  the  original  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
into  the  Latin  tongue  and  to  resolve  them  originally"  if  his 
conduct  has  been  satisfactory.  He  A\411  get  his  second  de- 
gree, the  master  of  arts,  when  he  can  make  a  "summary  of 
logic,  natural  and  moral  philosophy,  arithmetic,  geometry 
and  astronomy,  and  is  ready  to  define  his  theses  or  positions 
withal  skillful  in  the  originals  as  aforesaid,"  if  again  he  has 
behaved  himself  properly.65 

Many  of  the  early  emigrants  to  New  England  had  un- 
doubtedly studied  at  some  of  the  English  universities  and  it 
was  unavoidable  that  the  new  course  should  be  largely  a 
copy  of  the  old  ones,  that  they  themselves  had  gone  through. 
Of  the  first  comers  to  Massachusetts  one  in  thirty,  it  is  said, 

98  J.  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  i,  page  515.  Quincy  has 
these  rules  also  in  Latin,  pages  577-79,  both  the  English  and  Latin 
being  official  he  says  on  page  IQ3.  The  same  are  contained  in  the 
First  Fruits  of  N.  E.,  Vol.  i,  Colls,  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 


54  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

was  a  graduate  of  the  English  Cambridge.66  As  pioneers 
facing  the  severity  and  roughness  of  life  in  a  new  landy 
transferring  civilization  across  the  Atlantic  to  a  home  amid 
wild  forests,  harassed  by  barbarous  natives,  they  of  necessity 
would  develop  an  independence  of  judgment  and  a  readiness 
of  adaptation  that  would  show  themselves  in  education  and 
in  all  walks  of  life.  But  a  comparison  of  the  plan  with  what 
we  can  learn  of  the  parent  institutions  in  Europe  will  dis- 
close a  variation  of  appearances  but  very  likely  no  substan- 
tial difference  in  principles.  While  at  Dublin,  at  Edinburgh, 
at  Oxford  we  come  across  the  name  Aristotle,  this  great 
Stagirite  must  unquestionably  be  retained  either  directly  or 
indirectly  through  some  of  his  commentaries  in  the  terms 
logic,  ethics,  politics,  and  physics.  Similarly  Porphyry,  a 
brother  Grecian,  was  extracted  under  some  of  the  general 
titles.  Not  as  many  Greek  authors  are  named  as  at  Dublin 
and  Edinburgh,  but  it  is  possible  the  same  were  studied.  As 
with  them  little  is  said  about  Latin  as  that  tongue  was  to 
be  as  familiar  as  the  vernacular  in  both  cases.  In  all  there 
were  Hebrew  and  other  Semitic  languages,  rhetoric,  dia- 
lectics, and  the  perpetual  disputations.  In  all  there  was  lit- 
tle mathematics  and  still  less  of  real  science.  In  all,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  the  star  of  purpose  was  religion. 

THE  COURSE  IN  1655. 

It  was  not  at  all  likely  that  there  could  be  much  develop- 
ment in  two  decades  in  a  subject  that  had  shown  almost  no 
change  for  centuries,  but  it  is  of  some  signficance  to  note 
that  there  were  some  modifications  in  the  way  of  greater 
definiteness.  For  admission,  we  learn  from  the  fuller  body 
of  laws  in  1665,  that  Virgil  or  other  "such  ordinary  classical 
authors"  was  added  to  the  list  in  Latin,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Isocrates,  and  "the  minor  poets  or  such  like"  in  Greek. 

**  M.  L.  Lough,  page  17,  Vol.  i,  Transalleghany  Hist.  Mag., 
Oct.,  1901. 


The  General  College  Course.  55 

There  were  other  similar  points  mentioned,  but  nothing  of 
important  modification  from  the  earlier  forms.67  The  Gre- 
cian Isocrates,  here  first  met  with,  is  another  link  in  the 
Atlantic  chain  as  he  appears  in  the  course  at  Westminster 
Academy,  England,  in  i625.68 

THE  COURSE  IN  1690. 

More  than  a  half  a  century  later  we  see  the  same  original 
body,  only  its  anatomy  is  a  little  more  accurately  described 
under  the  official  title  of 

"A  PARTICULAR  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  PRESENT  STATED  EXERCISES 
ENJOYNED  THE  STUDENTS. 

"The  first  year  the  Freshmen  recite  the  classick  authors 
learn't  at  school  viz.,  Tully,  Vergil,  Isocrates,  Homer,  with 
the  Greek  testament  and  Greek  catechism,  Dugard's  or 
Farnaby's  rhetoric  and  the  latter  part  of  the  year  the  Hebrew 
grammar  and  Psalter,  Ramus's  and  Burgersdicius's  Logick. 

"The  second  year  the  sophomores  recite  Burgersdicius's 
logick  and  a  manuscript  called  the  New  Logick  extracted 
from  Legrand  and  Mr.  (?)  Copland  (?).  Wollebius  on 
Saturday,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  Herebord's 
Meletemata  continuing  still  most  part  of  the  year  recitations 
in  the  forementioned  Greek  and  Hebrew  books  and  dispute 
on  logical  questions  twice  a  week. 

"The  third  year  the  Junior  Sophisters  recite  Herebord's 
Meletemata,  Mr.  Morton's  Physicks,  Dr.  More's  ethick,  a 
sistem  of  geography,  and  a  sistem  of  metaphysicks,  Wolle- 
bius divinity  on  Saturday  and  dispute  twice  a  week  on 
physical  and  metaphysical  and  ethical  questions. 

"The  fourth  year  the  senior  sophisters  recite  Alsted's 
geometry,  Gassendus's  astronomy,  goe  over  the  arts,  viz., 

"Proceedings  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Vol.  14,  pages  207-215. 
88  Public  Schools,  page  92,  published,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1867 
(pages  VIII,  414),  by  the  author  of  "Etoniana." 


56  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

grammar,  logic  and  natural  philosophy,  Ames  Medulla,  and 
dispute  once  a  week  on  philsophical  and  astronomical 
questions."  69 

But  this  is  official  and  consequently  dry.  A  gossipy,  news- 
paper account  of  the  present  day,  we  can  never  have  but  we 
come  the  nearest  towards  it,  so  far  as  can  be  learned  from 
the  data  now  available,  in  the  account  of  Cotton  Mather,  an 
ecclesiastical  pedant  and  hence  doubly  tiresome,  but  it  is 
the  best  we  have  of  anything  like  a  living  picture  of  the 
school  room  in  Harvard  at  the  time,  about  1700,  in  his 
Magnalia. 

COTTON  MATHER'S  ACCOUNT. 

When  a  pupil  had  learned  at  the  grammar  school  so  as 
to  be  able  to  "read  any  classical  author  into  English,  and 
readily  make  and  speak  true  Latin,  and  write  it  in  verse  as 
well  as  prose;  and  perfectly  decline  the  paradigms  of 
nouns  and  verbs  in  the  Greek  tongue,  they  were  judged 
capable  of  admission  in  Harvard  Collidge;  and  upon  the 
examination  were  acordingly  admitted." 

After  admission  they  "read  out  of  Hebrew  into  Greek 
from  the  Old  Testament  in  the  morning,  and  out  of  English 
into  Greek  from  the  New  Testament  in  the  evening,"  then 
they  were  instructed  in  the  Hebrew  language  and  tutors  led 
them  through  all  the  liberal  arts,  e're  their  first  four  years 
expired;"  "And  in  this  time  they  had  their  weekly  decla- 
mations on  Fridays  in  the  Collidge  Hall,  besides  public  dis- 
putations." Then  in  June  for  three  weeks,  as  candidates  for 
degrees,  they  stood  on  Mondays  and  Tuesdays  in  the  Hall 
for  anyone  to  examine  their  skill  in  the  languages  and  sci- 
ences which  they  now  pretended  unto:"  this  was  called 
"sitting  of  solstices." 

But  at  commencement,  "formerly  the  second  Tuesday  in 

*Page  31,  "Harvard  College  Papers,  Vol.  I,  1650-1763,"  Mss.  In 
Harvard  Archives. 


The  General  College  Course.  57 

August,  but  since,  the  first  Wednesday  in  July,"  they  "held 
their  act  publicly  in  Cambridge"  for  getting  the  degree  of 
"bachelor."  Their  "orations"  addressed  to  "all  persons  and 
orders  of  any  fashion  then  present"  "with  proper  compli- 
ments, and  reflections  were  made  on  the  most  remarkible 
occurrentes  of  the  preceding  year :  and  these  orations  were 
made  not  only  in  Latin  but  sometimes  in  Greek  and  in 
Hebrew  also ;  and  some  of  them  were  in  verse,  and  even  in 
Greek  verse,  as  well  as  others  in  prose.  But  the  main 
exercises  were  disputations  upon  questions  wherein  the  re- 
spondents first  made  their  theses." 

Those  who  had  studied  three  years  after  their  first  degree 
got  the  master's  degree  upon  "exhibiting  synopses  of  the 
liberal  arts,  by  themselves  composed,  now  again  publicly 
disputed  on  some  questions  of  perhaps  a  little  higher 
elevation." 70 

THE  COURSE  IN  1726  AND  LATER. 

During  this  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  making 
allowance  for  a  difference  of  phraseology,  it  can  be  said 
there  was  absolutely  no  change  in  the  course.  Even  the 
same  text-book  authors  are  mentioned  and  the  same  descrip- 
tive terms  for  the  various  subjects.71 

But  by  1740  either  new  authors  had  been  chosen  or  the 
names  of  the  regular  ones  were  printed,  as  we  find  Ward's 
mathematics,  Gordon's  geographical  grammar,  Gravesande's 
philosophy,  Euclid's  geometry,  Brattle's  logic,  Watt's  logic, 
and  Locke's  human  understanding.72 

We  also  learn  about  this  time  something  of  the  studies  for 
entrance.  Some  candidate  who  afterwards  developed  into 
a  preacher,  Holyoke,  has  left  the  scope  of  what  was  required 

TO  Cotton  Mather,  Magnolia  Christi  Americana,  1702,  Volume  2, 
page  10  of  the  1820  reprint. 

"  J.  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  i,  page  441. 
w  Peirce,  History  of  Harvard,  page  237. 


58  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

of  him  as  follows :  Twenty-four  lines  of  the  second  JSneid 
of  Virgil,  fifteen  lines  of  the  third,  Cicero's  second  and  third 
Catiline  orations,  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  in  the 
Greek  testament  and  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Luke  in  the 
Greek  testament.  Besides  a  theme  was  given  to  each  one 
to  develop,  perhaps  outside,  to  be  handed  in  after  several 
days.  He  records  three  at  this  particular  instance: 

Labor   improbus   omnia   vincit. 
Sapientia   praestat  viribus. 
Semper  avarus  eget. 

THE  METHOD. 

Like  her  European  prototype,  Harvard  had  the  tutorial 
system  by  which  each  instructor  generally  led  his  classes  in 
all  the  subjects.  It  was  only  after  very  patient  reasoning 
with  the  innate  conservatism  of  the  human  nature  in  the  gov- 
erning body  that  in  1767  the  teachers  were  assigned  to 
subjects  so  that  one  had  Latin,  another  Greek,  another  logic, 
metaphysics,  and  ethics,  and  another  mathematics  and  the 
sciences.  Perhaps  the  means  did  not  allow  of  this  division 
sooner,  it  is  still  more  doubtful  whether  the  students  were 
ripe  enough  for  this  step  in  the  earlier  stages.  Nearly  one- 
half  a  century  after  the  opening  of  her  doors,  the  man  with 
the  best  means  of  observing  could  say  that  the  college  was  in 
"a  low  sinking  state."  73  Something  over  two  decades  fol- 
lowing he  could  refer  to  the  pupils  as  "forty  or  fifty  chil- 
dren," hardly  mature  enough  to  appreciate  his  learned  ex- 
positions of  the  scriptures,  or  at  least  less  worthy  of  his 
efforts  than  his  church  of  some  1,500  attendants.74  But  the 
passion  for  progress,  for  learning,  for  culture,  was  un- 
quenchable. No  matter  what  the  obstacle,  no  matter  how 
meagre  the  appliances,  the  institution  climbed  upward  and 

73  Increase   Mather's   Diary,  page  317,   Vol.   3,   Mass.   Hist.   Soc. 
Proceedings. 

74  J.  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  i,  page  96. 


The  General  College  Course,  59 

steadily  carried  onward  the  torch,  flickering  at  times,  that 
still  lighted  the  path  for  her  neighbors. 

YALS  A  DUPLICATE  OF  HARVARD. 

The  founders  of  Yale  had  thus  alongside  of  them  a  pat- 
tern, and  when  they  opened  their  doors  just  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  'century  it  was  the  most  natural  and  the 
most  sensible  thing  for  them  to  model  their  course  as  nearly 
like  that  of  Harvard  as  possible  and  to  keep  it  so  through- 
out the  colonial  times.75  Even  at  the  end  of  our  struggle 
with  England  the  youth  at  Yale  were  still  having  their  for- 
mal disputations,  their  forensics,  and  the  same  subjects  as 
their  brethren  in  Cambridge  and  almost  the  same  textbooks, 
going  through  the  same  mill  for  admission.  To  make  the 
parallel  still  more  striking  there  were  the  same  kind  of 
criticisms  of  the  standard  being  low.  There  were  also  stric- 
tures on  the  curriculum  showing  a  very  keen  insight  into 
the  future.  Just  before  the  outbreak  of  our  hostilities  with 
the  motherland  one  of  the  tutors  sarcastically  referred  to 
the  whole  scheme  as  the  "progress  of  dullness,"  denounced 
the  emphasis  laid  upon  ancient  languages  and  declared  the 
metaphysical  hair  splitting  of  little  advantage  in  any  busi- 
ness or  profession  in  life"  and  called  for  the  teaching  of 
English.76  What  an  eye  he  had  for  piercing  the  veil  ahead 
as  it  was  at  least  one  hundred  years  before  his  demands 
for  practical  discipline  in  English  talking  and  writing  were 
heard  by  the  educational  authorities. 

WILUAM  AND  MARY. 

Although  amid  a  slightly  different  geographical  and  so- 
cial environment,  William  and  Mary  college  is  cast  in  the 
same  educational  mold  as  her  sister  in  New  England.  Per- 

75  W.  L.  Kingsley,  Hist.  Yale,  Vol.  i,  page  25,  also  Vol.  2,  page  496. 
78  W.  L.  Kingsley,  Hist.  Yale,  Vol.  i,  page  98. 


60  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

haps  she  represents  a  return  to  the  original  source  for  both 
more  than  the  influence  of  Harvard.  The  ruling  class  here 
still  looked  across  the  Atlantic  for  its  customs  and  for  its 
models.  England  was  still  "home"  to  them  just  as  it  is 
to-day  to  the  colonists  in  Australia  though  separated  from 
their  parent  land  by  more  than  twice  the  distance  the  Vir- 
ginian was.  Those  who  could  afford  it  sent  their  sons  for 
schooling  across  the  waves.  School  masters  in  England 
looked  for  patronage  in  the  colonies  and  some  kept  their 
advertisements  in  the  Virginia  papers.  In  the  grammar 
school  for  the  institution  it  was  the  announced  purpose  that 
the  boys  should  follow  in  the  steps  of  their  brother  pupils 
in  the  corresponding  training  centers  of  England. 

But  coming  from  the  same  fountain  head  the  stream  was 
practically  the  same  as  that  in  New  England.  There  was 
the  same  aim  of  breeding  ministers,  of  inculcating  religious 
truths,  of  studying  philosophy,  the  ancient  languages,  and 
sciences,  of  disputations  and  declamations  and,  still  more 
analogous,  of  christianizing  the  Indian.77  As  foreshadow- 
ing Virginian  supremacy  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  coun- 
try, greater  emphasis  was  laid  upon  law  and  politics  at  an 
earlier  date  than  elsewhere  in  this  country. 

In  some  respects  this  southern  effort  approached  its 
medieval  model  closer  than  any  other  in  America.  The 
management  attempted  to  ingraft  upon  this  material  ener- 
getic democracy  one  of  the  most  distinctive  marks  of  an 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  Just  seVen  years  Before  the  first 
shock  of  arms  the  board  of  visitors  resolved  that  when  one 
of  the  instructors  got  married  his  place  should  be  consid- 
ered vacant  because  "engaging  in  marriage  and  the  con- 
cerns of  a  private  family"  was  "contrary  to  the  principles 
on  which  the  college  was  founded  and  their  duties  as  pro- 
fessors."78 

77  Beverly,  History  of  Virginia,  page  88. 

78  History  of  William  and  Mary,  page  45,  Murphy  edition,  1870. 


The  General  College  Course.  61 

But  in  spite  of  their  adherence  to  the  old  world,  in  spite 
of  their  desire  to  tread  the  same  paths,  time  and  place  were 
against  them.  One  of  the  professors  had  to  admit,  in  1724, 
that  "the  nature  of  the  country  scarce  yet  admits  of  a  pos- 
sibility of  reducing  the  collegians  to  the  nice  method  of 
living  and  studying  observed  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge."79 

•y 

OTHER  INSTITUTIONS. 

Besides  these  three  there  were  seven  more  born  in  our 
colonial  period  but  as  they  were  young  and  as  their  courses 
were  as  far  as  they  could  make  them  only  modifications  of 
those  offered  by  the  three  elder  sisters,  it  is  unnecessary 
to  go  into  the  details  of  what  they  presented.  Besides  the 
data  is  not  so  full  and  not  so  minute.  In  those  respects  the 
pioneer  of  them  all  is  at  the  front. 

HARVARD  THE  GREATEST  OF  Au,. 

Not  only  does  Harvard  furnish  the  fullest  account  of  her 
life  but  she  had  the  fullest  life  to  describe.  She  started 
first  and  she  long  held  undisputed  primacy  in  achievements 
and  influence.  The  most  varied  activity,  the  fullest  intel- 
lectual feast,  the  most  capable  adaptation,  the  readiest  recep- 
tiveness  and  at  the  same  time  the  safest  judgment  are  to  be 
found  here,  at  this,  the  oldest,  the  largest,  and  the  greatest 
of  all  the  institutions  of  learning  ,in  the  new  world  and 
among  the  greatest  in  the,  whole  world. 

A  MORE  DETAILED  STUDY. 

But  even  with  Harvard  in  colonial  days,  as  compared  with 
the  present  the  course  was  not  only  meagre  in  range  but 
also  meagre  in  description,  and  it  is  necessary  to  go  much 
wider  and  deeper  than  the  formal  terms  to  see  what  was 
really  taught,  to  learn  what  interpretation  was  put  upon 

78  Hugh  Jones,  State  of  Virginia,  page  27. 


62  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

the  different  subjects  offered.  With  us  college  cata- 
logues and  study  schemes  do  not  always  accurately  por- 
tray what  is  done  in  the  class  rooms.  Difficult  as  it  is  now 
to  acquire  this  knowledge  except  by  actual  experience,  it 
can  be  easily  imagined  how  enormously  greater  is  the  task 
for  a  period  two  hundred  years  ago  in  a  new  land  with  all 
of  the  human  energies  devoted  to  the  question  of  reducing 
the  obstacles  of  nature  rather  than  of  training  the  human 
mind. 


CHAPTER  III. 
ANCIENT  LANGUAGES. 

LATIN,  GENERAL  VIEW. 

Through  the  centuries  the  mighty  tread  of  the  Roman 
legion  has  echoed  in  the  sonorous  phrases  of  the  Latin 
tongue.  Massive  in  its  structure,  merciless  in  its  gram- 
matical rigidity,  it  embodies  the  very  spirit  of  Rome  which 
first  taught  the  world  how  to  be  ruled  by  formal  law.  Just 
as  there  had  been  a  preliminary  struggle  of  Greek  and 
Roman  for  mastery,  so  there  had  been  a  conflict  between 
the  two  languages  as  to  which  one  should  be  the  transmuter 
to  the  succeeding  generations  of  the  life  and  thought  of  the 
classic  days.  In  both  cases  the  city  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tiber  won.  Other  rivals  had  bowed  at  the  touch  of  Latin 
imperiousness,  just  as  other  peoples  had  yielded  to  the 
Roman  standard.80 

Rome  was  the  mistress  of  the  material  world,  Latin  be- 
came the  mistress  of  the  intellectual  world.  The  very  force 
of  inheritance  made  her  sway  supreme.  She  had  gathered 
up  the  entire  knowledge  of  the  preceding  ages.  Through 
traveller,  through  historian,  through  dramatist,  Greece  had 
garnered  the  best  gems  of  the  eastern  nations,  these  in  turn 
she  had  passed  on  to  her  neighbor  beyond  the  Adriatic. 
The  experience  that  Rome  had  added  was  already  now 
locked  up  in  her  speech.  The  rise  of  the  Christian  church, 
the  centralizing  of  all  power  in  this  seven  hilled  town  placed 
in  her  hands  what  has  been  through  all  ages  the  most 
potent  factor  in  marshalling  the  emotions  and  shaping  the 
sentiments  of  humanity.  Latin  became  the  handmaid  of 
religion.  The  church  though  not  the  exclusive  agency  in 
establishing  schools  was  active  in  education,  carrying  down 

80  Gibbon,  Vol.  i,  page  44,  Milman  edition,  1858. 


64  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

deep  the  foundations  of  her  control.81  The  decrees  were 
issued  in  Latin,  the  priest  delivered  his  message  through 
it,  it  was  the  voice  of  the  soul  in  its  yearnings  for  higher 
life.  It  breathed  the  grace  and  pity  of  the  Redeemer  and 
spoke  the  terrors  of  revelation.  It  was  the  key  to  the  prob- 
lem of  existence.  It  explained  the  past,  it  soothed  the  pres- 
ent, it  revealed  the  future.  It  pointed  the  way  for  the  be- 
liever, it  barred  the  road  for  the  heretic.  It  was  the  princess 
of  the  trio  of  divine  dialects.82  Its  noble  duty  was  to  pre- 
pare the  sacred  men  of  the  church  who  were  to  look  after 
the  eternal  welfare  of  mankind.83 

It  not  only  vanquished  Greek  but  for  a  long  period  it 
stifled  all  the  vernacular  of  Europe.  Through  all  these  cen- 
turies it  was  the  only  sphere  for  the  mind,  all  European 
achievements  and  learning  were  in  this  dress.  It  was  the 
medium  for  scholars,  it  was  the  instrument  for  officials. 
Whatever  germs  of  international  law  and  diplomacy  can  be 
discovered  were  budded  upon  this  philological  tree.  The 
lawyer  used  it  in  his  documents,  it  was  indispensible  to  the 
physician.  It  was  not  only  handy  to  the  more  elevated  call- 
ings but  the  daily  operations  of  life  were  carried  on  in  this 
atmosphere.  The  messenger  of  the  courts  performed  his 
tasks  in  it,  it  furnished  the  merchant  with  the  names  of  his 
wares,  the  musician  trusted  it  in  his  mastery  of  sound,  it 
appeared  on  the  ledger  of  the  bookkeeper,  the  architect  re- 
lied on  it  in  his  plans.  It  was  the  universal  medium  for 
letter  writing,  bearing  the  tender  messages  of  the  lover,  the 
familiar  items  of  relatives  and  friends,  the  weighty  utter- 
ances of  governments  and  the  solemn  deliverances  of  the 
clergyman.  The  querulous  complaints  and  the  insistent 
pleadings  for  more  money  of  the  son  in  a  far  off  university 

81  Laurie,  Rise  of  Universities,  page  108,  claims  that  the  church  did 
not  found  universities  any  more  than  it  founded  chivalry. 

M  Eggleston,  Transit,  page  129,  quotes  Laing. 

81  C.  Wase,  page  45,  Consid.  Free  Schools,  calculates  there  were 
some  15,000  of  these  "ecclesiastics." 


Ancient  Languages.  65 

were  also  buried  in  the  masses  of  Latin  missives.  In  fact 
everyone  who  wanted  to  be  in  touch  with  his  fellows  through 
the  aid  of  words,  either  written  or  spoken,  had  to  have  a 
certain  facility  and  command  of  Latin. 

The  artist  and  the  philosopher  were  impressed  with  its 
vastness  and  its  mightiness.  In  the  court  of  Charlemagne 
was  a  famous  picture  representing  the  seven  liberal  arts 
with  grammar  as  queen,  knife  in  right  hand  for  erasing 
errors  and  thong  in  left  to  show  supremacy.  John  Locke, 
seer  as  he  was,  fell  under  her  spell.  Profound  in  his  grasp 
he  could  point  out  the  weaknesses  of  education  in  his  day 
but  he  seemed  afraid  to  lay  a  profane  hand  upon  Latin 
which  he  says  "I  look  upon  as  absolutely  necessary  for  a 
gentleman."  Perhaps  at  heart  he  felt  the  hollowness  of 
this  view  but  even  he  did  not  feel  strong  enough  to  set 
himself  up  against  the  prevailing  custom.  He  goes  on  to 
say  "Latin  and  French,  as  the  world  now  goes,  are  by 
everyone  acknowledged  to  be  necessary."84  The  good  Mo- 
ravian bishop  Comenius  had  a  noble  conception  of  making 
Latin  "the  means  of  inter-communication  for  the  instructed 
of  every  nationality,"  a  dream  of  a  world  language  that  even 
to  the  present  we  see  still  unfruited.  A  touch  of  the  humor- 
ous is  added  to  this  ponderous  subject  when  a  schoolmaster 
in  Virginia  chided  his  student  to  grapple  with  the  intricacies 
of  this  discipline  by  telling  him  that  "he  will  never  be  able 
to  win  a  young  lady  of  family  and  fashion  for  his  wife" 
unless  he  can  trip  easily  and  skillfully  through  the  moods 
and  tenses  of  Latin.85  Down  to  the  immediate  present  we 
find  the  testimonials  of  profound  thinkers  to  the  value  of 
this  study.  Latin  and  Greek  are  considered  the  embryology 
of  our  civilization,  "the  humanities,"  because  they  are  the 
fountain  head  of  all  art,  science,  and  jurisprudence.86  To 

14  R.  H.  Quick's  Locke,  pages  138,  171. 
"Fithian,  Journal,  page  125. 

"J.  K.  F.  Rosenkranz,  page  278  of  his  Philosophy  of  Education. 
5 


66  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

one  of  the  most  prolific  American  educational  writers, 
Latin  reproduces  "the  political  atmosphere  of  Rome"  with 
her  conception  of  law,  and  social  organizations,  revealing 
"this  Roman  spirit  in  its  intimate  and  characteristic  form."87 
To  the  Italian  humanist  it  was  "  the  portal  of  all  knowledge 
whatsoever,"  the  guide  for  right  living.88  The  whole  case 
was  condensed  into  a  nugget  by  Quintilian  hundreds  of 
years  before.  To  him  grammar  was  literature. 

LATIN  CONVERSATION. 

As  the  gateway  of  all  knowledge  men  had  to  turn  to 
Latin.  Tradition  suggested  this  step,  practice  needed  it, 
culture  called  for  it,  authority  ordered  it.  It  was  far  easier  to 
use  this  tool  ready  to  hand  than  to  fashion  one  from  their 
own  native  speech,  and  even  after  the  edge  of  the  latter  had 
been  sharpened,  from  mere  force  of  habit,  they  still  clung  to 
this  classic  language.  It  must  be  got  in  its  three-fold  en- 
tirety, reading,  writing  and  talking.  There  was  a  passion  for 
oral  skill  in  it  and  before  the  eleventh  century  Latin  conver- 
sation books  for  the  ordinary  events  of  the  day  had  to  be 
memorized  by  the  pupils.  All  of  education  was  directed  to 
this  end.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Strasburg  gymnasium 
had  ten  classes,  all  in  Latin.89  The  most  famous  school- 
master of  that  time  "wanted  to  restore  the  language  of 
Cicero,  and  Ovid  and  to  give  his  pupils  great  power  of  ele- 
gant expression  in  that  language."  He  was  downcast  and 
wailed  because  a  German  of  eighty  couldn't  talk  Latin  as 
well  as  Cicero  did  at  twenty.80 

In  England  the  same  ambition  reigned  in  the  academies. 
At  Harrow,  and  at  Westminster  even  to  1800,  far  more 

87  Universities  and  Their  Sons,  page  17. 

88  Vittorino,  page  144,  by  W.  H.  Woodward,  Cambridge,  Eng.,  1897. 
*  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  History  of  Education,  page  160. 

80  R.  H.  Quick,  Essays  on  Educational  Reformers,  page  27.    Sturm 
is  meant. 


Ancient  Languages.  67 

stress  was  laid  upon  the  colloquial  command  of  Latin  than 
upon  rules  of  conduct.  A  false  pronunciation  brought 
down  a  lively  flogging  but  a  liar  escaped.91  At  the  universi- 
ties on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  nothing  was  to  be  heard  in 
the  class  room  or  out  of  it  except  these  sounds  generated 
on  the  Mediterranean.  In  Paris  it  was  imperative  that  the 
applicants  state  their  cause  in  Latin  without  a  French 
word.92  In  Edinburgh  the  regulations  sought  to  cover  the 
entire  existence  of  students  as  it  was  enjoined  upon  them  to 
speak  Latin  both  in  the  schools,  in  the  close,  in  the  fields, 
and  in  all  other  places  where  they  were  together  and  "none 
is  to  be  found  speaking  Scotch."93  Their  formal  exercises, 
even  those  for  recreation,  had  to  be  performed  in  the  same 
medium.  In  many  institutions  Latin  plays  were  given,  both 
the  ancient  ones  and  original  ones  composed  at  the  time. 
All  this  fiery  zeal  for  grasping  another  tongue  leaped  to 
America.  English  was  felt  to  be  a  kind  of  poor  relation  that 
no  one  wanted  to  associate  with  an  intruder  in  high  com- 
pany. Children  at  one  time  in  New  Haven  who  bothered 
the  master  by  spelling  in  English  were  sent  home.  It  mat- 
tered not  what  the  nationality  was,  there  was  the  same 
fanaticism  for  Latin.  A  Dutch  burgomaster  in  New  York 
desired  instruction  for  the  youth  in  that  most  useful  lan- 
guage, Latin.94  The  stinging  epithet  of  "asinus"'  was  ap- 
plied to  the  dull  boy  who  had  to  use  English  in  order  to  be 
understood.95 

THE  GOAL  FOR  ALL. 

The  securing  of  this  linguistic  vehicle  was  the  object  of 
all,  both  in  the  college  and  in  the  lower  schools.    Following 

w  Public  Schools,  page  319. 

**  H.  Rashdall,  Univs.  Mid.  Ages,  Vol.  2,  page  595. 

M  Grant,  Edinburgh,  page  140. 

**  C.  L.  Brodhead,  History  of  New  York,  page  640. 

"Eggleston,  Transit,  page  215. 


68  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Harvard,  Yale  even  as  late  as  1720  required  "scholars  in 
their  chambers  and  when  they  are  together  shall  talk 
Latin,"  no  English  to  be  allowed  except  as  a  special  privi- 
lege.96 Half  a  century  after  this,  at  William  and  Mary,  the 
faculty  had  voted  that  "the  students  in  the  philosophy 
schools  shall  speak  Latin  declamations  of  their  composi- 
tions, and  that  by  two  of  them  in  rotation  this  exercise  shall 
be  performed  in  .the  chapels  immediately  after  evening 
service  every  second  Thursday  during  term  time."97  This 
action  was  most  likely  very  agreeable  to  many  of  the  gentry 
there.  A  hundred  years  earlier  one  of  them  had  provided 
by  will. that  a  person  be  "bought"  to  teach  his  son  English 
or  Latin  but  the  parent  expressed  his  preference  for  the 
latter.98  About  the  time  that  this  Virginia  planter  was  so 
much  concerned  over  Latin  for  his  offspring,  the  salutatory 
at  Harvard  consisted  of  more  than  2,000  Latin  words.99 
Here  within  a  decade  of  the  sundering  of  our  ties  with 
England  a  fund  had  been  subscribed  to  provide  prizes  for 
those  who  "excelled  in  the  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew  languages,  and  in  elocution  or  just  pronunciation 
or  action.100 

It  is  well  known  that  the  elementary  schools,  provided 
for  generally  by  law  in  New  England  were  mainly  to  teach 
Latin.  As  far  back  as  1677  Connecticut  decreed  that  every 
"county  town"  should  keep  such  a  school.  Just  seven  years 
later  the  trustees  of  the  New  Haven  grammar  school  re- 
ported on  the  facilities  for  instructing  "hopeful  youth  in  the 
Latin  tongue  and  other  learned  languages  so  far  as  to  pre- 
pare such  youth  for  the  college."101  This  fondness  sur- 

**  W.  L.  Kingsley,  History  of  Yale,  Vol.  2,  page  496. 
"History  of  the  College,  page  43. 
88  Virginia  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  2,  page  236. 
M  Harvard  College  Papers,  Vol.  i,  page  45,  Mss.     Of  course  all 
on  religion  and  morality. 

100  Harvard  College  Papers,  Vol.  2,  page  7,  Mss. 

101  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  4,  page  710. 


Ancient  Languages.  69 

vived  even  the  stress  and  agony  of  separation  from  the 
motherland.  Just  five  years  before  the  close  of  the  century 
Leicester  Institute  wanted  the  exhibition  to  consist  of  Greek, 
Latin  and  English  orations.102  It  was  not  until  thirty  years 
later  that  Massachusetts  repealed  that  old  statute  enforcing 
the  establishment  of  schools  for  teaching  Latin,  but  even 
with  the  light  of  recent  progress  in  their  eyes  the  lawmakers 
still  bound  seven  towns  to  these  Roman  bonds.  It  was  not 
until  this  date  that  they  began  to  use  the  term  "high  school" 
instead  of  Latin  school.103 

This  fever  has  burnt  in  European  veins  2,000  years  and 
all  the  cooling  effects  of  modern  languages  and  modern 
sciences  have  not  entirely  reduced  it.  The  Jesuits  still  talk 
it  and  the  brethren  of  every  nationality  communicate  with 
each  other  by  means  of  it.  To-day  they  have  fat  little  con- 
versation volumes  up  to  date  in  Latin  terms  for  all  new 
ideas  introduced  into  English  by  the  enormous  develop- 
ments in  science  and  numerous  inventions.  One  of  the  later 
ones  appears  under  the  authorishp  of  S.  W.  Wiley,  though 
it  is  really  a  conversation  book  of  the  whole  order.10*  So 
thoroughly  are  they  drilled  in  Latin  that  it  becomes  a  second 
speech  for  them,  conversing  in  it  with  the  greatest  ease. 
But  they  give  up  eight  entire  years,  with  the  exception  of 
one  hour  daily,  to  this  language,  and  then  keep  up  their 
practice  in  it  for  the  balance  of  their  days.  One  of  the 
latest  and  most  interesting  survivals  of  it  is  to  be  observed 
in  one  of  the  most  remarkable  American  educational  institu- 
tions, the  Catholic  University  of  America  founded  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century  at  Washington,  D.  C.  Here  it 
is  expected  to  be  used  in  the  Latin  Seminar.105 

1M  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  28,  page  799. 

103  T.  Davidson's  History  of  Education,  page  245. 

104  S.  W.  Wiley,  Guide  to  Latin  Conversation,  1892,  i8mo,  over  500 
pages.    He  got  out  another  edition,  smaller,  "How  to  Speak  Latin." 

""  Year  Book,  for  1903-1904,  page  70. 


70  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

THE  PATHS  TO  THE  APEX. 

"Grammar  was  studied  for  years  in  order  to  learn  to 
speak  and  write  Latin  correctly;  dialectic  in  order  to  use 
it  logically;  and  rhetoric  in  order  to  handle  it  oratori- 
cally."106  As  far  back  as  we  can  trace  the  teacher  started 
with  lecture  and  dictation  so  as  to  give  the  pupil  the  mor- 
phology of  Latin.  The  grammar  proper  was  studied  in 
the  dialectical  method,  by  a  round  of  arguments  pro  and  con 
on  questions  picked  out  for  this  trial  of  verbal  strength. 
Under  these  four  formal  methods  was  the  problem  tackled ; 
by  dictation  of  words  and  inflections,  by  comment  upon  pas- 
sages, by  disputations  upon  extracts,  and  by  exercises  on 
accent  and  pronunciation.  Then  came  the  reading,  along 
with  both  these  went  talking  and  writing.  In  the  early  cen- 
turies, simple  narratives,  such  as  Phaedrus  or  Valerius 
Maximus  were  chosen,  mainly  from  post-classical  writers 
rather  than  those  of  classic  days  but  these,  especially  Cicero 
and  Sallust,  were  eventually  included.  The  process  was  al- 
most microscopic.  The  particular  passage  was  treated 
word  by  word  as  to  meaning,  connection,  style,  arrange- 
ment, allusions,  and  comparisons  with  other  writers.  The 
students  took  notes  and  gradually  evolved  a  grammar  and 
a  vocabulary  each  for  himself.  The  method  goes  back  to 
the  days  of  Plutarch  who  has  samples  of  this  same  kind 
of  work.107 

STURM'S  COURSE  BEFORE  1600. 

This  great  architect  of  education  had  an  elaborate  scheme 
in  his  ten  year  gymnasium  at  Strasburg.  Though  prolix 
it  is  worth  space  as  illustrating  one  of  the  best  ideals  in 
continental  Europe  about  the  beginning  of  the  modern  era. 

"*  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  Hist.  Educ.,  page  165,  quoting  from  Raumer,  a 
noted  German  investigator. 

107  W.  H.  Woodward's  Vittorino,  page  210.  Also  Erasmus,  Vol.  I 
of  Works,  page  527. 


Ancient  Languages.  71 

In  his  lowest  class,  that  for  beginners,  he  had  the  Latin 
declensions  and  conjugations  with  some  reading  and  writ- 
ing. 

In  the  second  year  this  routine  was  followed  with  the 
memorizing  of  Latin  words  and  the  irregular  grammatical 
forms. 

In  the  third  the  same  core  is  found  with  composition,  ex- 
ercising on  Latin  verses,  following  Cicero's  letters  of  style. 

In  the  fourth  came  syntax  and  the  application  of  the 
grammatical  rules  from  Cicero's  letters  with  writing  and 
translations  into  German. 

In  the  fifth  Cicero  was  translated  and  a  start  was  made  in 
Latin  poetry  and  in  Jerome's  letters. 

In  the  sixth  a  number  of  new  words  were  added,  versifi- 
cation and  mythology  were  taken  up  and  Virgil  was  yoked 
with  Cicero  as  material  to  be  translated  into  German  and 
to  serve  as  the  basis  for  composition  and  declamations. 

In  the  seventh  came  Horace  besides  the  other  authors  in 
the  previous  years,  with  numerous  exercises  in  composition 
and  a  minute  study  of  style. 

In  the  eighth  composition,  translation  and  conversation 
were  continued  using  such  authors  as  Plautus  and  Terence. 

In  the  ninth  the  same  painful  attention  to  composition, 
translation,  conversation,  and  style,  with  much  memorizing 
and  reciting  of  these  ancient  authorities.  Formal  rhetoric 
and  dialectics  were  included. 

In  the  tenth  the  same  general  outline  was  followed  with 
the  addition  of  weekly  dramatical  entertainments  in  Latin. 

The  only  language  at  all  in  the  school  besides  Latin  was 
Greek,  with  a  mere  modicum  of  German,  but  neither  one 
of  these  received  more  than  a  fraction  of  the  attention  given 
to  Latin.  Of  course  voluminous  notebooks  were  required 
to  be  made  by  the  pupils. 


72  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ROGER  ASCHAM'S  NOTIONS. 

At  about  the  corresponding  period  there  was  in  England 
a  very  quaint  and  pregnant  writer  on  education.  It  is  well 
worth  while  to  glance  at  his  ideas  which  though  not  differ- 
ing very  materially  from  the  practice  on  the  mainland  gives 
us  another  side  to  this  question  and  enables  us  more  safely 
to  comprehend  its  limits.  He  directed  that  the  teacher 
should  explain  very  carefully  the  portion  selected  and  parse 
it  entirely.  After  an  interval  the  pupil  is  to  be  examined  upon 
this  lesson,  also  making  a  translation  of  his  own  book  into 
Latin.  This  the  master  is  to  go  over  with  him,  criticising, 
correcting,  and  pointing  out  in  what  respects  it  differs  from 
the  great  model  left  by  Cicero.  He  insists  that  notes  shall  be 
made  under  such  formal  heads  as  propriety  in  the  choice  of 
words,  metaphors,  synonyms,  variations  in  meaning,  an- 
tonyms and  phrases.  He  epitomized  the  whole  progress  of 
learning  a  language  under  the  six  heads;  translatio,  para- 
phrasis,  metaphrasis,  epitome,  imitatio,  and  declamatio.108 

WHAT  WAS  DONE  AT  WESTMINSTER. 

It  has  not  been  possible  to  find  for  any  American  institu- 
tion such  a  full  account  as  we  have  of  Westminster  at  about 
the  time  that  the  Mayflower  cast  anchor  at  Plymouth.  It  is 
very  likely  that  some  of  the  early  settlers  went  through  the 
routine  at  this  institution.  It  is  the  safest  kind  of  a  deduc- 
tion that  what  was  done  here  was  followed  as  closely  in  the 
new  colonies  as  the  difference  of  condition  would  permit. 
The  following  may  be  considered  in  fact  a  picture  of  the 
Latin  course  in  the  new  world  with  some  inevitable  varia- 
tions. Hence  this  deserves  proper  setting  for  our  purpose. 
There  are  only  two  years  covered  but  they  are  sufficiently 
typical. 

108Ascham,  The  School  Master.     Metaphrasis,  changing  verse  to 
prose. 


Ancient  Languages.  73 

In  grammar  the  boys  regularly  recited  pages  from  Lilly, 
being  called  out  from  a  circle  of  14  or  15  standing  in  front 
of  the  teacher  and  one  taking  up  where  the  other  had  left 
off.  Again  others  would  be  called  forth  to  make  extempore 
verses  or  to  expound  some  given  passage,  but  all  had  to  be 
ready  to  recite  from  memory.  They  were  liable  at  any  time 
for  extempore  translations  into  Latin  to  give  an  account 
in  this  tongue  of  any  exercise  previously  studied.  At  some 
time  in  the  morning  session  the  teacher  would  faithfully  ex- 
pound some  selections  in  the  method  indicated  above  and  in 
the  afternoon  his  work  had  to  be  returned  to  him  by  the 
students  with  the  most  exact  construction  and  application  of 
grammatical  rules  and  full  explanation  of  rhetorical  figures. 
And  later  in  the  day  they  had  to  recite  literally  a  section  of 
definition  or  of  proverbs  and  sentences  specially  arranged 
for  this  purpose  by  the  teacher.  Constantly  they  were  to  be 
prepared  to  transfer  from  any  one  of  these  three  languages 
into  any  other;  Latin,  Greek  or  French,  in  prose  or  in 
poetry.  And  a  still  more  difficult  thing  was  to  make  prose 
or  verse  upon  some  theme  given  them  the  day  before.  All 
were  under  the  eyes  of  monitors  who  kept  them  strictly  to 
the  speaking  of  Latin.  A  form  of  punishment  that  has 
come  down  to  the  present  day  was  to  repeat  long  portions 
from  the  classical  authors.  On  Saturdays  they  wound  up 
the  week's  toil  with  declamations  in  one  of  these  ancient 
languages.  The  requirement  of  talking  Latin  in  the  class 
room  was  retained  to  i8oo.109 

THE  TRANSIT  To  AMERICA. 

To  these  virgin  shores,  to  these  forest  wilds,  were  im- 
ported the  same  riot  of  the  intellect  for  Latin  speech  and  the 
same  monumental  effort  to  acquire  this  medium  and  the 
same  machinery  for  advancing  towards  this  aim.  All  wanted 
to  talk  it  and  consequently  all  were  to  read  it,  to  write  it, 

109  Public  Schools,  page  171. 


74  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

to  pore  over  every  line  and  word  and  letter  of  the  Roman 
writers.  There  were  to  be  in  regular  succession  accidence, 
syntax,  construing,  parsing,  composition,  versification,  con- 
versation, declamations  and  the  same  frightful  burden  of 
memorizing  pages  upon  pages  of  both  grammar  and  text. 
William  and  Mary  was  frank  in  avowing  her  imitation  of 
the  English  school  for  she  exacted  the  same  authors  adopted 
in  the  schools  of  England.  Buried  in  the  charter  and  stat- 
utes of  the  colleges  and  schools,  in  the  outlines  of  study,  and 
in  the  other  historical  data,  we  come  across  the  same  proper 
names  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  We  find  &sop,  Cor- 
derius,  Caesar,  Tully  (Cicero),  Ovid,  Virgil,  Horace,  Eras- 
mus, Eutropius,  Juvenal,  Persius,  Terence,  Sallust,  Nepos, 
and  other  Latin  writers  besides  the  established  grammars  of 
Priscian  and  Donatus  which  had  stood  the  wear  of  ages, 
finally  Lilly,  the  most  widely  used  one  for  several  centuries. 

But  American  progressiveness  while  appropriating  also 
made  additions.  There  is  a  most  notable  one,  the  leader  in 
its  influence  among  our  Latin  helps  issued  in  America.  This 
was  the  "accidence"  of  Ezekiel  Cheever,  a  little  i8mo  of 
something  over  a  hundred  pages,  showing  the  steady  growth 
in  the  importance  of  the  English  tongue  as  it  is  in  that 
language.  It  is  a  very  happy  condensation  of  the  elements 
of  Latin  grammar.  But  these  books  are  anatomy  only  that 
needs  the  flesh  of  actual  teaching  if  we  are  to  see  what  was 
really  done.  Fortunately  we  have  a 

CLASS  ROOM  SCENE. 

"Circumspicite,"  called  out  the  teacher,  and  immediately 
the  little  heads  in  front  of  him  would  be  turned  from  side  to 
side  of  the  room. 

"Imitamini  sutorem"  and  instantly  those  who  understood 
would  begin  to  draw  threads  as  the  cobbler  does  in  sewing 
shoes. 

Again  he  would  begin  to  draw  the  picture  of  a  lion,  but 


Ancient  Languages.  75 

placing  a  beak  on  it  instead  of  a  head.    At  once  some  voice 
would  be  heard,  "non  est  leo,  leones  non  habent  rostrum." 

Thus  he  would  hold  the  attention  of  his  class  by  either 
making  figures  on  the  board  or  by  describing  some  object 
and  having  them  to  draw  their  conclusions  in  Latin.  As 
for  instance,  pointing  to  the  eyes  or  the  fingers  or  giving 
them  commands  so  that  they  would  bark  like  a  dog  or  roar 
as  a  wild  beast.  Thus  has  good  luck  preserved  for  us  and 
investigation  presented  us  this  realistic  scene  of  a  German 
school  towards  the  latter  part  of  our  colonial  period,  reviv- 
ing conditions  for  us  almost  as  realistically  as  the  vitagraph 
and  phonograph  could.110  This  was  not  a  detached  example 
but  was  the  growth  of  a  long  series  of  experiments  and  was, 
of  course,  wafted  to  America,  there  to  be  reproduced. 

MATERIAL  HELPS. 

These  results  were  possible  because  there  had  been  a  chain 
of  text-books  linking  back  through  time.  Early  in  the 
middle  ages  were  Latin  conversation  books,  at  first  in  manu- 
script only.  Some  of  the  most  important  series  were  evolved 
by  the  Jesuits.  One  of  this  brotherhood  had  a  very  pro- 
found plan.  He  wanted  to  get  a  short  cut  so  he  prepared 
a  series  of  brief  sentences,  some  1,200  in  all,  composed  of  all 
the  root  words  in  the  language  so  arranged  that  no  word 
would  be  used  a  second  time  aside  from  the  simple  connec- 
tives. He  very  thoughtfully  appended  an  index  so  that  any 
word  could  be  readily  found.  The  following  specimen  will 
be  a  fair  sample  of  the  whole :  Dum  malum  comedis  juxta 
malum  navis,  "de  malo  commisso  submalo  vetita  meditare," 
or  "while  thou  eatest  an  apple  near  the  mast  of  a  ship  think 
of  the  evil  committed  under  the  forbidden  apple  tree."111 

110  E.  L.  Kemp,  page  266,  describing  the  school  founded  by  Base- 
dow,  in  his  History  of  Education,  1902. 
m  R.  H.  Quick,  Essays  on  Educational  Reformers,  page  161. 


76  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

This  quotation  typifies  both  the  Latin  and  the  religion  of 
the  volume. 

ADOPTED  BY  COMENIUS. 

This  innovation  was  seized  upon  by  that  comprehensive 
reformer  in  educational  methods.  He  improved  on  the  no- 
tion, and  got  out  his  "Orbis  pictus,"  probably  the  first  illus- 
trated school  book  among  European  peoples.  He  himself 
had  wandered  through  the  mazes  of  the  formal  Latin 
grammar,  and  felt  hot  indignation  against  all  teachers  as 
tyrants,  and  torturers,  with  the  grammar  as  their  chief  agent 
of  cruelty.  He  wanted  to  save  others  from  what  he  had 
suffered,  by  smoothing  the  steep  ascent,  making  it  so  gentle 
that  the  top  could  be  reached  almost  without  conscious 
effort.  He  designed  a  little  book  of  several  hundred  com- 
mon Latin  words  with  enough  of  the  paradigms  to  allow  of 
the  making  of  very  simple  sentences.  A  second  volume  was 
to  meet  the  needs  of  youths,  containing  8,000  words,  with 
some  rules  of  grammar  at  the  end.  The  third  was  fitted  for 
the  next  age  above,  consisting  of  treatises  and  more  diffi- 
cult phrases,  to  teach  elegance  of  diction.  The  fourth  was 
to  be  a  thesaurus  made  up  of  extracts  from  the  classical 
authors  themselves,  showing  great  variety  of  expression  and 
of  idoms.  By  ringing  the  changes  on  the  800  vocables  in 
1,000  sentences  classified  under  100  heads,  he  believed  that 
the  original  idea  of  the  Latin  root  words  would  easily  and 
permanently  find  lodgment  in  the  brain  of  his  pupils,  and 
that  they  in  turn  by  innumerable  combinations  would  be 
provided  with  an  instrument  of  speech  that  would  super- 
sede their  mother  tongue  and  would  make  into  one  family  all 
the  educated  persons  of  the  western  world.  Each  would  be 
"obambulans  bibliotheca,"  "a.  walking  library."  Paradise 
would  thus  be  regained,  he  thought. 


Ancient  Languages.  77 

AMERICAN  IMPORTATIONS  OF  THE  IDEA. 

During  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  there 
appeared  at  Boston,  in  a  book  of  some  seventy  pages,  "sen- 
tences for  children,"  which  had  been  originally  gathered  out 
of  sundry  authors  by  Colman  and  put  into  English  by 
Charles  Hoole  so  as  to  soften  the  entrance  into  this  Roman 
atmosphere.  It  is  made  up  of  simple  sentences,  none  over  a 
line  in  length,  in  parallel  columns,  with  religion  as  the  chief 
color  through  the  whole.  In  one  page  of  thirty-five  lines  the 
word  God  appears  twenty-eight  times,  not  counting  pro- 
nouns. 

Corderius  had  been  the  popular  stuff  for  cutting  such  pat- 
terns from  in  the  seventeenth  century.  There  is  one  speci- 
men of  this  sort  running  up  to  some  400  pages,  with  the  two 
languages  in  parallel  columns. 

Just  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  so  insistent 
is  the  strain  after  Latin  that  a  new  edition  of  Corderius 
appears  in  New  Hampshire,  a  very  forunate  circumstance 
for  us  as  it  carries  us  back  to  the  very  beginnings  of  our 
colonial  education.  It  is  a  series  of  100  conversational  les- 
sons on  simple  everyday  matters,  and  the  following  will  put 
before  us  about  as  thoroughly  as  can  be  done  what  was 
actually  attempted  in  Latin  lessons  during  our  early  years 
on  this  continent. 

1 3th  Chapter. 

A.  Abiit  tuus  Pater? 

B.  Abiit. 

A.  Quota  Hora  ? 

B.  Prima  pomeridiana. 

A.  Quid  dixit  tibi  ? 

B.  Monuit  me  multis  verbis  ut  turerem  diligenter. 

A.  Utinam  facias  sic? 

B.  Faciam,  deo  juvante. 
A.  Deditne  tibi  pecuniam  ? 


78  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

B.  Ut  solet  fere. 

A.  Quantum? 

B.  Nihil  ad  te,  etc. 

3$th  Chapter. 

• 

A.  Quot  annos  natus  es  ? 

B.  Tredecim,  ut  accipi  a  matre.     Quot  annos  natus  es  tu  ? 

A.  Non  tot. 

B.  Quot  igitur? 

A.  Duodecim. 

B.  Sed  quotum  annum  agit  frater? 

A.  Octavum. 

B.  Quid  ais  ?  liquitur  Latine  ?  etc.  "2 

This  early  love  still  lingers  with  us.  Some  of  the  terms 
are  changed,  our  mistress  has  modified  the  trimmings  a  little, 
there  may  be  a  different  shade  of  color  for  the  ribbon,  but 
she  is  the  same  fascinator  to  a  dwindling  group  of  educators 
that  she  was  practically  to  the  whole  number  of  admirers 
centuries  ago.  One  of  the  latest  and  most  popular  of  these 
conversational  incentives  to  the  study  of  Latin  is  Sauver's 
"Talks  with  Caesar,"  1878,  constructed  along  practically  the 
same  lines  as  Comenius  trod,  but  the  200  years  had  drilled  at 
last  some  wisdom  into  the  heads  of  educators.  Sauver  has 
not  the  slightest  intention  of  dealing  with  daily  concerns,  he 
modestly  connes  himself  to  repetitions  of  Caesar's  vocabu- 
lary so  as  to  hasten  acquaintance  with  that  author. 

FORMAL  GRAMMAR. 

As  a  means  to  an  end  and  as  an  instrument  of  distinct 
mental  discipline  in  its  days  Latin  grammar,  with  its  numer- 
ous cases  and  verbal  endings,  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
sunny  days  of  the  mistress  of  the  ancient  world.  There  were 
ponderous  helps  of  this  sort  and  even  Julius  Caesar  found 

m Colloquies  of  Corderius,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  1810. 


Ancient  Languages.  79 

time  amid  the  demands  of  his  epoch-making  life  to  pen  a 
treatise  upon  nouns  and  verbs.  But  this  study,  as  we  con- 
ceive it  now,  really  reaches  to  about  the  fourth  century,  to 
Donatus,  who  continued  to  be  the  main  authority  in  this 
field  until  he  was  later  in  the  middle  ages  superseded  in  part 
by  Priscian.  Both  of  these  were  replaced  by  the  verses  of 
Alexander  de  Villa  Dei  in  his  Doctrinale.  Grammar  was 
largely  in  the  inducive  stage  as  there  were  no  formal  rules 
usually  such  as  were  made  later. 

All  three  differ  as  much  from  their  modern  successors  as 
a  tree  trunk  does  from  the  cabinet  into  which  it  is  finally 
fashioned.  Of  course  all  were  entirely  in  Latin.  There  was 
no  arrangement  of  paradigms  as  we  now  see  them,  but 
instead  there  were  directions  as  to  the  endings  in  declina- 
tions and  conjugations.  The  rules  of  syntax  were  largely 
the  addition  of  Priscian  and  he  and  his  followers  seemed  to 
be  ambitious  to  multiply  the  rules  as  fully  as  possible,  one 
of  them  rising  to  the  height  of  500  rules,  with  numerous 
exceptions.  On  the  other  hand,  religious  devotees,  like 
Gregory  the  Great,  were  opposed  to  all  rules  as  shameful 
restraints  on  the  Holy  language.113  Ordinarily  these  books 
were  dictated  by  the  master  to  the  pupils  to  be  learned  by 
heart. 

Even  the  stagnation  of  the  middle  ages  could  not  prevent 
efforts  at  improvement.  One  of  the  most  notable  of  these 
was  a  series  of  text-books  devised  by  the  reformer,  Philip 
Melanchthon,  whose  Latin  Grammar  passed  through  over 
fifty  editions  and  whose  other  works  were  largely  used 
for  nearly  two  centuries.  An  influence  was,  perhaps, 
wafted  over  to  him  from  England  from 

WILLIAM  LILLY, 

who  had  made  the  pilgrimages  fashionable  at  that  time,  had 
studied  in  Italy  and  had  wandered  to  Jerusalem  and  was  con- 

m  S.  G.  Williams,  Medieval  Education,  page  59. 


8o  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

sidered  well  accomplished  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences  of  his 
day.  "He  set  forth  a  grammar  which  is  universally  taught 
all  over  England,"  said  the  old  English  author  Fuller.  So 
acceptable  was  it  to  the  pedagogues  that  its  fame  reached 
the  ears  of  King  Henry,  and  with  the  very  humane  desire 
to  smooth  the  road  of  learning  as  much  as  possible  for  the 
maturing  minds  of  youth,  a  royal  decree  commanded  that 
Lilly  alone  should  be  studied  within  the  realms  of  Eng- 
land.114 It  was  the  foundation  for  lesser  men  to  build  upon 
and  for  a  century  or  so  afterwards  nearly  all  of  the  gram- 
mars show  traces  of  William  Lilly.  Locke  seemed  rather 
inclined  to  sneer  at  such  dominion  and  declared  that  people 
"stick  to  it  as  if  their  children  had  scarce  an  orthodox 
education  unless  they  learned  Lilly's  grammar."118  It  may 
be  that  Lilly  was  wise  far  beyond  his  generation  and  long 
since  saw  the  value  of  cooperation,  as  some  editions  of  his 
books  at  least  had  the  assistance  of  Colet  and  Erasmus. 

He  may  be  said  to  mark  the  end  of  the  old  era  and  to 
usher  in  the  new  one  of  to-day.  One  of  his  editions,  bearing 
date  about  a  decade  before  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  in 
Massachusetts,  does  not  vary  to  any  great  extent  from  the 
newest  ones  now.  He  has  the  eight  parts  of  speech,  ety- 
mology, classes  of  nouns,  paradigms,  etc.  He  has  syntax 
and  he  winds  up  with  a  third  division,  very  common  at  one 
time,  of  prosody.  Of  course  it  is  all  in  Latin.  It  may  be 
because  of  this  ancient  dress  that  a  Virginia  youth  sarcas- 
tically referred  to  it  as  "insipid  and  unintelligible  book," 
but  in  later  years,  with  more  maturity  of  judgment,  re- 
verses his  view  and  thought  it  "a  complete  grammar  and  an 
excellent  key  to  the  Latin  language."116 

m  Fuller's  Church  History  of  Britain,  Book  5,  Section  i,  page  13. 

mR.  H.  Quick's  Locke,  page  139. 

118  Va.  Hist.  Register,  Vol.  3,  page  145. 


Ancient  Languages.  81 

EZEKIEI,  CHEEVER'S  ACCIDENCE. 

"He  taught  us  Lilly  and  he  gospel  taught"  is  the  double 
cord  that  sounded  through  the  ninety  odd  years  of  Boston's 
most  famous  school  master.  For  a  while  he  literally  used 
Lilly  and  then  he  wrote  his  simple  little  treatise,  which  al- 
though having  125  rules  was  a  very  primer  of  clearness  and 
brevity  by  the  side  of  its  predecessors.  Part  of  the  task  of 
transferring  Lilly  had  already  been  done  by  John  Brinsley. 
the  greatest  school  master  of  King  James's  reign,  who  had 
himself  transfused  Lilly  into  a  textbook  of  his  own,  but 
Cheever's  adaptation  was  a  still  further  improvement.  It  is 
most  probable  that  he  also  got  inspiration  from  Roger 
Ascham,  whose  Scholemastcr  mounts  to  the  level  of  pure 
literature. 

This  little  volume  passed  through  some  eighteen  editions 
before  the  Revolutionary  War  and  was  popular  with  teachers 
even  for  some  time  after  that.  It  is,  of  course,  in  English, 
and  the  most  important  difference  between  it  and  any  gram- 
mar of  the  present  day  is  its  lack  of  illustrations  of  the  rules 
of  syntax.  It  is  hardly  creditable  that  so  well-balanced  a 
man  was  carried  away  by  the  fad  of  conversation,  at  least 
there  are  not  much  signs  in  his  pages  of  yielding  to  this 
weakness  as  he  hammers  the  skeleton  of  the  language  into 
his  pupils.  He  did  it  successfully  too,  as  there  is  testimony 
that  the  youth  he  sent  up  to  Harvard  were  exceptional  in 
their  fitness  for  the  Latin  requirements.117 

He  makes  no  boastful  announcement  of  what  he  can  ac- 
complish, although  there  were  examples  before  him  almost 
equal  to  what  we  can  now  read  in  the  circulars  of  cor- 
respondence schools  or  even  in  patent  medicine  advertise- 
ments of  the  results  to  follow  from  the  use  of  certain  aids. 
A  few  years  before  Cheever  was  born  a  Londoner  had  got 

117  Cotton  Mather's  Funeral  Sermon  on  Cheever. 
6 


82  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

out  "a  practical  grammar  or  the  easiest  and  shortest  way  to 
initiate  young  children  in  the  Latin  tongue,"  promising  that 
a  child  of  seven  years  old  may  learn  more  in  three  months 
than  his  elder  brothers  could  learn  in  twelve  by  the  ordinary 
method.  But  none  of  these  short  cuts  to  knowledge  for 
Cheever,  only  steady  tramping  along  the  well-beaten  path 
for  this  experienced  leader. 

But  he  was  hardly  learned  enough  for  the  colleges  and 
the  youth  at  these  centers  still  mouthed  over  Priscian  and 
Donatus,  which  were  thought  more  profund.  But  through 
the  centuries,  after  packing  away  the  rules  of  grammar  in 
the  memory,  there  came  the  question  of  applying  them  so  as 
to  train  in  the  power  of  creation. 

COMPOSITION  AIDS. 

After  Gutenberg  opened  the  eyes  of  the  world  to  the 
possibilities  of  movable  type,  numbers  of  Latin  helps  came 
upon  the  market.  Their  compilers  were  in  dead  earnest  in 
trying  to  substitute  Latin  for  their  daily  tongue.  They 
fashioned  equivalents  for  all  of  the  ordinary  terms  of  the 
time,  endearing  epithets,  vulgar  words,  as  well  as  more 
dignified  phrases.  Not  even  the  wildest  Latin  maniac  of  the 
present  would  venture  upon  the  flights  of  those  early  days. 
J.  Garretson,  ''school  master,"  gravely  set  the  boys  such 
tempting  morsels  as  these  to  be  turned  into  Latin : 

"My  dear  cousin  offered  me  a  kiss." 

"The  pretty  boy  sits  between  the  pretty  girls."  118 

There  were  other  implements  for  this  "wooden  handi- 
craft," such  as  Bucklerina's  "Thesaurus  of  Poetical  Phrases." 
sylva  synonimorum  (forest  of  synonyms),  and  descriptions 
by  periphrases. 

"*  Pages  12,  16  of  his  English  Exercises. 


Ancient  Languages.  83 

DICTIONARIES. 

Monumental  toil  was  expended  in  trying  to  get  the  Latin 
complement  for  every  English  color.  Naturally  Cicero's 
writings  were  the  favorite  hunting  ground  for  such  prizes. 
Thomas  Drax  turned  to  that  everlasting  "mouther"  of  an- 
cient days  for  "a  rich  store-house  of  proper,  choice  and  ele- 
gant Latin  words,"  running  up  to  519  pages.  He  found 
thirteen  Latin  phrases  for  "to  frame  or  make  a  speech," 
but  for  the  idea  of  uttering  words  in  general  he  inserts 
thirty  Latin  expressions. 

The  very  top-notch  of  all,  a  regular  drag  net  for  the  whole 
scheme,  was  Holyoke's  Dictionary,  in  three  parts.  Hardly 
any  one  will  dispute  that  these  "phraseological  explications" 
are  the  "most  complete  and  useful  of  any  that  was  ever  yet 
extant  in  this  kind."  It  is  a  wilderness  almost  as  thick  as 
that  of  a  French  idiomatic  dictionary  at  the  present.  He 
has  150  pages,  four  columns  each,  50  English  items  to  the 
column,  or  a  total  of  30,000  English  terms  run  into  Roman 
molds.  He  is  recklessly  prodigal  in  the  riches  he  presents. 
He  has  26  illustrations  of  "cut  off,"  and  23  for  "dead" 
though  "dead  easy"  is  not  in  the  list,  perhaps  not  in  existence 
at  the  time.  There  are  27  for  "shoot,"  and  we  are  disap- 
pointed, although  hardly  justified,  in  expecting  him  to  repeat 
how  some  Roman  sneered  at  Cicero's  readiness  to  "shoot  off 
his  mouth."  For  "shirt"  there  are  four,  and  here  again  we 
fail  to  find  some  of  our  vigorous  talk,  such  as  we  can  easily 
imagine  Brutus  used  in  the  famous  quarrel  scene  with  Cas- 
sius  when  he  begged  him  not  to  "tear  his  shirt."  He  doesn't 
give  us  the  Roman  for  "a  gay  old  bird,"  but  he  conies  next 
to  it  when  he  translates  "an  old  lubber  playing  the  boy." 
Here  are  40  expressions  typifying  "old,"  but  "old  maid"  is 
not  there,  perhaps  because  she  did  not  exist  in  Roman  days. 
He  does  have  "charta  virgo,"  and  almost  gives  us  the  newest 
manifestation  in  this  direction  when  he  puts  "a  manly 


84  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

woman"  into  Virago,  nearly  equal  to  our  "bachelor  girl." 
Thus  he  goes  on  ranging  over  the  gay,  the  solemn,  the 
humorous,  the  slangy,  and  the  obscene.  There  are  plenty  of 
the  last  that  these  pages  would  not  possibly  bear,  but  exactly 
the  kind  of  talk  that  boys  use  among  themselves  to-day  when 
they  think  no  older  person  is  by  to  hear  their  vulgarity.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  significant  things  in  the  entire  volume  and 
throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  awful  strain  that  men  made 
in  those  days  to  adopt  Latin  as  the  living  speech. 

TSXTS. 

The  roots  of  all  these  plants  went  down  into  the  soil  of 
the  Latin  authors,  Cicero,  Virgil,  Seneca  and  other  succes- 
sors under  the  Christian  skies.  The  originals  were  used 
really  and  literally,  but  as  men  fell  back  from  the  inaccessible 
heights  of  universal  Latin  speech  these  pills  were  sugar- 
coated  with  notes.  No  great  advantage  to  the  learner  at 
the  start  as  they  were  in  the  Latin  of  the  editor  himself,  but 
even  this  was  a  concession  to  the  rising  tide  of  common 
sense  in  education.  Hardly  anything  better  could  be 
achieved  so  long  as  these  volumes  were  studied  not  for  lit- 
erature or  for  the  thought  in  them,  but  simply  as  material  for 
grammar  and  conversational  exericses. 

PONIES. 

These  nimble  capering  animals  have  rather  a  long  pedi- 
gree and  very  early  there  were  famous  men  not  ashamed  to 
back  them.  Even  that  sedate  bachelor,  John  Locke,  openly 
advocated  an  amble  upon  these  four-footed  beasts.  He  went 
further  and  got  out  an  interlineary  of  ^sop's  Fables.119  He 
had  successors  too  for  Corderius,  and  Cicero,  the  latter  by 
that  universal  genius  whom  Carlyle  has  dubbed  the  "father 
of  all  the  Yankees,"  Benjamin  Franklin. 

"°  R.  H.  Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  page  238. 


Ancient  Languages.  85 

Some  of  the  editions  differ  very  little  from  to-day,  being  as 
full  and  as  thin,  and  as  aggravatingly  useless  on  the  difficult 
places,  but  profuse  on  the  easy  passages,  as  in  those  we 
find  now.  There  were  some  also  with  special  vocabularies 
and  indexes.  But  the  bulk  were  hard,  dull,  and,  with  notes 
in  Latin,  as  unattainable  and  vexatious  as  a  feast  visible 
but  not  tangible.  All  methods  for  typographical  disposition 
of  notes  were  in  use,  both  at  the  sides  of  the  page,  at  the 
bottom,  and  at  the  end  of  the  volume.  There  was  also  that 
modern  trick  of  parallel  columns  for  the  translations  and 
literalness  to  the  extent  of  being  almost  word  for  word. 

DID  THEY  GET  WHAT  THEY  WERE  AFTER? 

Yes,  at  least  some  of  them  did  in  a  measure,  especially  the 
professional  educators  such  as  those  hairsplitting  school 
men.  It  is  largely  the  fashion  to  laugh  at  the  barbarisms  of 
those  authors  but  it  is  very  often  a  reflection  upon  the  critic 
himself  as  he  does  not  understand  their  habitual  abbrevia- 
tions and  very  often  he  has  trouble  to  decipher  their  cramped 
characters.  "The  medieval  schoolmen  sinned  no  more 
against  pure  Latinity  than  the  modern  scientific  writer  sins 
against  English  undefiled."120  Thus  the  testimony  of  a 
competent  investigator  runs  in  favor  of  these  much  abused 
people.  He  goes  further  and  declares  "so  far  as  grammati- 
cal errors  are  concerned  there  are  few  or  none."  The  speci- 
mens of  poor  work  that  are  often  given,  Leach  thinks,  are 
"the  sad  hash  made  by  ignorant  modern  transcribers." 

Some  of  the  devotees  of  the  time  almost  attained  the  acme 
of  their  effort,  they  almost  knew  more  Latin  than  they  did  of 
their  native  speech.  In  the  time  of  Henry  VIII  Palsgrave 
reports  to  his  Majesty  that  there  were  some  at  the  universi- 
ties who  had  profited  in  the  Latin  tongue  and  could  write 
"an  epistle  latin  like  and  thereto  speak  Latin"  and  had  at- 
tained to  a  "comely  vein  in  making  verses."  In  fact  he  goes 

130  A.  F.  Leach,  English  Schools,  page  106. 


86  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

on  they  had  become  so  apt  in  Latin  that  they  were  not  able 
to  express  themselves  easily  and  naturally  "in  their  vulgar 
tongue,"  but  he  thought  this  very  favorable  as  he  consid- 
ered Latin  "the  very  chief  thing  that  the  schoolmaster 
should  travail  in."121 

A  PRIG  PRODUCT. 

Such  loftiness  above  the  common  herd  was  pretty  sure  to 
swell  some  heads  outrageously.  D'Ewes  is  a  sample  as  we 
are  told  that  at  15  he  made  themes,  "large  and  solid"  and 
verses  lofty  and  of  several  kinds  all  of  which  he  carefully 
embalmed  in  exercise  books,  not  counting  nearly  300  Latin 
and  Greek  verses  that  he  also  ground  out.  He  could  com- 
placently record  "scarce  met  with  any  Latin  author,  prose  or 
verse,  which  I  could  not  interpret  at  first  sight"  and  he  also 
modestly  says  that  he  was  "able  to  discourse  somewhat 
readily  in  the  Latin  tongue"  and  trip  up  his  university  in- 
structor who  was  spouting  Latin  to  the  class.  In  some 
three  weeks  he  made  "divers  lyric  odes"  with  "anagrams 
and  epigrams,"  all  in  an  off-hand  sort  of  way  as  a  mere  play 
for  him  without  omitting  any  of  his  regular  tasks.  As  if  all 
this  was  not  enough  to  disgust  any  reader  he  piles  on  it 
that  none  of  this  work  was  "very  troublesome"  except  "the 
Greek  sapphics."  There  is  one  saving  point  in  this  auto- 
biography, he  says  he  did  not  print  all  of  his  effusions  for 
which  we  should  be  properly  thankful.122 

How  WAS  IT  IN  AMERICA? 

Considering  the  differences  in  conditions  and  allowing  for 
the  keener  material  demands  of  a  frontier  home  the  English 
colonies  were  reduced  photographs  of  the  old  world.  There 

in  Palsgrave,  in  report  of  Bureau  of  Education  for  1902. 

122 D'Ewes  (1602-1650),  "beau-ideal  of  an  antiquary;  with  no  mas- 
culine tastes  or  interests :"  narrow  minded,  without  common  sense. 
Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  Vol.  14,  page  450. 


Ancient  Languages.  87 

was  the  same  violent  prolonged  yearning  for  Latin  and 
practically  the  same  measure  of  victory.  Cotton  Mather 
could  record  very  early  "the  public  declamations  in  Latin 
and  Greek"  which  the  Harvard  youth  were  accustomed  to 
make,  as  it  seemed  to  him  with  considerable  credit  to  them- 
selves and  to  the  institution.123  He  himself,  naively,  seems 
to  have  written  Latin  with  a  more  flowing  pen  than  he  did 
English.  He  narrates  how  he  found  out  that  those  devils 
who  were  responsible  for  the  witchery  which  eventuated  in 
such  a  horrible  manner  understood  not  only  Latin  but  also 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  He  set  a  trap  for  the  demons  by  talk- 
ing in  first  one  then  the  other  of  these  languages  to  some 
afflicted -case,  thus  proving  that  the  poor  wretch  understood 
him  in  each  instance  while  under  the  spell  of  the  evil 
spirits.124 

President  Stiles,  of  Yale,  was  very  ready  to  give  certifi- 
cates of  proficiency  in  Latin  to  graduates  of  Harvard.  Of 
Rector  Elisha  Williams,  class  of  1711,  Stiles  says,  "he  spoke 
Latin  freely  and  delivered  orations  gracefully  and  witn  ani- 
mated dignity."125  Timothy  Cutler,  Harvard  1701,  "was 
a  noble  Latin  orator"  and  "spoke  Latin  with  fluency  and 
dignity  and  with  great  propriety  of  pronunciation."126 
Stiles  himself  handled  Latin  "with  great  ease"  though  a  sav- 
ing clause  follows  to  the  effect  that  he  made  minor  mis- 
takes.127 

DEMONS  OF  DISCONTENT. 

With  practically  all  the  schools  babbling  at  it,  with  the 
clergy  preaching  in  it,  with  the  great  Lord  Bacon  disdaining 
to  use  any  other  vehicle  for  his  philosophical  ideas,  with 
books  being  constantly  written  in  it,  with  virtually  all  litera- 

m  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  Vol.  i,  page  243. 

J"  His  Magnolia,  Vol.  2,  page  464,  Drake  edition  of  1853. 

'*  W.  L.  Kingsley's  History  of  Yale,  Vol.  i,  page  57. 

"•F.  B.  Dexter,  Sketches,  page  272. 

irW.  L.  Kingsley,  History  of  Yale,  Vol.  i,  page  in. 


88  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ture  in  this  garment,  there  should  have  been  the  calm  of  the 
morning  in  the  intellectual  world,  but  there  was  not.  In- 
stead of  such  peace,the  shafts  of  censoriousness  were  flying 
keen  and  thick.  There  were  doubts,  questionings,  grumb- 
lings, criticisms,  sneers,  and  all  manner  of  ugly  fault-find- 
ings not  only  with  the  subject,  itself  but  with  the  method  of 
learning  it  and  with  the  shrivelled  fruits  of  failure  that  came 
from  it. 

There  were  especially  heavy  growls  of  dissatisfaction  with 
the  hard,  dry,  tedious  grammar  method  of  approaching  the 
task.  A  few  observers  saw  the  torture  of  packing  away 
endless  rules  and  countless  exceptions  in  the  cells  of  the 
brain.  Lubinus,  theologian  though  he  was,  thought  that 
the  ingenuity  of  the  devil  had  been  used  to  find  the  best  way 
not  to  learn  Latin,  that  some  ill-omened  monks  had  first  de- 
vised it  so  that  nothing  could  come  of  it  except  "Ger- 
manisms, barbarisms,  solecisms,  mere  abortions  of  Latin, 
dishonorings  and  defilements  of  the  tongue."128  The  oral 
method,  he  declared  was  the  key  to  the  situation,  as  cooks 
and  scullions  got  more  knowledge  of  modern  tongues  by 
mixing  with  the  natives  than  students  got  of  Latin  by  years 
of  grinding.  Martin  Luther  had  a  rough  tongue  and  he 
could  take  a  swipe  with  it  at  the  ecclesiastical  armor  of 
protection.  "Is  it  not  pitiable,"  he  raspingly  asked,  "that 
a  boy  has  been  obliged  to  study  twenty  years  or  longer  to 
learn  enough  bad  Latin  to  become  a  priest  and  read 
mass  ?"129  He  struck  a  basal  cord  there  which  sounded  far 
away  in  time  and  space.  A  German  innovator,  Ratich,  took 
a  noble  stand  when  he  openly  advocated  attention  to  the 
mother  tongue,  rather  than  such  overwhelming  stress  upon 
Latin  and  Greek.  In  the  same  country  a  prince  protested 
against  the  bondage  of  Latin  and  urged  German  and  the 
sciences  instead.  Comenius  looked  in  the  same  direction. 

128  S.  S.  Laurie,  Educational  Reformers,  page  155. 
ia*  L.  Seeley,  page  166  of  his  History  of  Education. 


Ancient  Languages.  89 

LOCKE  AND  MILTON. 

But  he  and  many  others  including  Locke  all  had  serious 
misgivings  about  this  new  departure,  they  all  thought  that  it 
would  be  best  to  keep  this  dead  speech  for  the  use  of  the 
cultivated  class.  Milton  also  had  his  doubts  about  the 
matter. 

But  he  and  Locke  agreed  in  this  that  if  it  was  to  be 
acquired  the  general  method  was  frightfully  wasteful  in  time 
and  energy.  Milton  sneered  at  the  modicum  of  tiresome 
scrapings,  the  few  tags,  that  the  pupils  got  in  one  year. 
Both  of  them  denounced  the  making  of  themes,  verses,  and 
orations.  Locke  saw  through  the  whole  thing  and  he  felt 
the  emptiness  of  the  entire  performance.  He  said  it  was  all 
nothing  but  learning  words,  "a  very  unpleasant  business 
both  to  young  and  old."130  He  also  praised  the  talking 
method  as  the  readiest  road  to  the  disagreeable  goal.  With 
all  his  acumen  and  philosophical  depth  he  blundered  just  like 
his  contemporaries  in  looking  on  Latin  as  a  living  thing 
instead  of  a  painted  mechanism.  The  glamour  of  tradi- 
tion and  the  sanctity  of  sacerdotalism  clogged  and  blunted 
the  sharpest  wits  of  the  time. 

BORROWED  PLUMAGE. 

But  not  all  were  deceived.  There  were  a  few  glittering 
rapiers  thrust  through  this  gaudy  mask  finding  only  hollow- 
ness  within.  Montaigne  said  that  the  boys  of  the  day  were 
only  asses  loaded  with  other  people's  learning,  and  forced 
to  keep  the  path  by  dint  of  blows.131  That  profound  seer, 
Comenius,  could  see  pretty  straight  and  he  glanced  along  the 
same  line  when  he  rapped  the  schools  that  they  did  not 
"train  minds  as  saplings  which  grow  from  their  own  roots, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  have  taught  their  scholars  to  attach  to 
themselves  branches  plucked  down  elsewhere,"  and  like 

130  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  History  of  Education,  page  220. 

m  J.  W.  Adamson,Pioneers  of  Modern  Education,  page  72. 


90  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 


crow,  "to  dress  up  in  borrowed  plumage,"132 
When  John  Webster,  made  his  onslaught  upon  education  in 
general,  in  England,  certainly  he  did  not  spare  Latin  as,  to 
him,  it  was  a  brake  upon  the  attaining  of  true  knowledge. 

All  these  blows  and  clash  of  strife,  these  skirmishes  and 
onsets,  in  time  made  an  impression,  very  slowly  at  the  hoary 
centers  of  conservatism,  but  more  swiftly  towards  the  cir- 
cumference. There  was  a  kind  of  university  extension  in 
London  about  1600,  lecture  courses  in  divinity,  law,  sciences 
as  then  understood.  There  was  a  concession  to  this  swell 
of  opposition  as  these  lectures  were  delivered  in  Latin  in  the 
morning  but  in  English  in  the  afternoon.133  In  the  i8th 
century  the  leaven  had  worked  a  little  more,  and  professors 
in  the  universities  began  gradually  to  use  their  mother 
tongue  in  their  classes. 

AMERICA  FAIXS  IN  LINE. 

The  very  air  of  our  forests  must  have  carried  a  kind  of 
freedom  into  the  lungs.  We  were  three  thousand  miles 
from  the  old  world  and  the  chain  of  conservatism  neces- 
sarily got  a  little  weak.  Franklin,  Rush,  Sower,  were 
among  the  bravest  of  us  to  raise  their  voices  against  this 
devotion  to  Latin.  The  same  spirit  went  into  the  university 
In  1763,  an  instructor  at  Harvard  offered  a  plea,  not  to  give 
up  the  classics,  but  to  improve  the  method  of  learning  them. 
He  urged  the  use  of  English  in  some  of  the  exercises,  and 
he  fought  the  compulsory  making  of  verses  unless  the  pupil 
showed  some  pastoral  ability  in  that  direction.134A  few  years 
later  a  student  wanted  to  drop  both  his  Greek  and  Latin 
authors  so  that  he  could  put  more  of  his  strength  upon 
divinity  branches.136  Still  deeper  had  the  light  pierced, 

|**J.  W.  Adamson,  Pioneers,  page  166,  quoting  from  Comenius's 
Didacta. 

188  Jno.  Stow,  Survey,  page  65. 
m  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  page  406,  Vol.  2. 
""  Harvard  College  Papers,  Vol.  2,  page  65,  manuscript. 


Ancient  Languages.  91 

even  many  years  before  this.  A  little  after  1700  a  memorial 
had  come  to  the  authorities  of  the  Boston  Latin  School  pray- 
ing for  less  Latin  or  quicker  means  of  obtaining  it.  Poor 
blundering  fellows  doubtless,  not  of  the  elect  class  of  cul- 
ture and  learning,  but  nevertheless  in  an  awkward  sort  of 
fashion,  almost  like  an  ignorant  man  trying  to  describe  a 
deep-seated  pain,  they  uttered  their  grievance.  "Accord- 
ing to  the  methods  used  here  there  are  many  hundreds  of 
boys  in  this  town  *  *  *  never  designed  for  a  more 
liberal  education,  have  spent  two,  three  and  four  years  or 
more  of  their  early  days  at  the  Latin  school  which  hath 
proved  of  little  or  no  benefit  to  their  after  accomplish- 
ment."136 

ONLY  A  SMATTERING. 

These  blunt  fellows  in  Boston  about  summed  up  the  matter 
correctly,  showing  decidedly  more  judgment  than  the  gener- 
ality of  their  educated  superiors.  More  than  a  century 
before  they  voiced  their  indefinite  ache,  a  shrewd  English- 
men had  declared  "there  is  no  one  thing,  that  hath  more, 
either  dulled  the  wits,  or  taken  away  the  will  of  children 
from  learning"  than  their  efforts  to  make  Latin.137  Even 
if  we  jump  much  farther  ahead  from  this  point  we  find  the 
same  views.  Far  down  in  the  i8th  century  a  school  teacher, 
the  author  of  a  Latin  prose  composition  in  very  wide  use, 
bemoaned  the  little  ground  covered  after  all  the  labor  spent 
upon  the  effort  to  learn  Latin.  "Liberal  translations"  was 
the  medicine  that  he  prescribed  for  the  slow  progress.  It 
seems  a  mere  travesty  upon  sense  that  this  author  felt  it 
necessary  to  cast  a  dart  of  sarcasm  at  that  requirement  that 
boys  should  talk  Latin  among  themselves  before  they  have 
attained  any  tolerable  skill  in  the  language.  "Absurd"  he 
denominated  this  practice.  He  would  not  say  that  the 
"ready  and  proper  use  of  the  Latin  tongue"  was  not  attain- 

186  Philips  Brooks,  Oration,  page  43. 

OT  Roger  Ascham,  page  185  of  his  works,  edited  by  Wright,  1905. 


92  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

able  at  school  but  he  does  come  out  flat-footedly  thus  "I 
never  yet  knew  so  much  as  one  instance  of  its  being  attained 
there  *  *  *  or  indeed  anything  like  it."188  Early  in 
the  1 8th  century  it  must  have  rapidly  declined  in  use.  One 
little  evidence  is  sufficient  for  us  here.  Hollis,  who  en- 
dowed a  professorship  of  divinity  at  Harvard,  begged  in 
1722  that  the  letters  sent  from  America  to  him  should  be  put 
into  English  as  "it  is  now  by  disuse  too  troublesome  to  me 
to  understand  the  beauty  of  Latin."139 

DID  THE  BOYS  TALK  LATIN? 

Many  of  their  fathers  wrote  it  at  one  time,  in  fact  all  edu- 
cated ones  who  wished  to  keep  company  with  their  class  did 
so,  but  it  is  rather  safe  to  say  that  the  boys  at  school  did  not 
use  this  tongue  in  their  everyday  intercourse  with  each 
other  any  more  than  the  average  boy  at  school  today  talks 
French  or  German  away  from  the  conversation  class  in  these 
subjects.  The  universities,  the  statutes,  the  faculties,  the 
regulations,  all  pompously  demanded  this  exercise  and  then 
the  authorities  had  the  awful  problem  before  them  of  en- 
forcing the  rule.  Some  of  the  most  dignified  of  the  institu- 
tions had  to  appoint  spies,  "lupi"  or  wolves,  to  report  any 
infractions  of  the  discipline,  to  haul  up  the  "vulgarisantes" 
for  dropping  into  their  vernacular  when  away  from  the 
hearing  of  the  teachers.  The  English  universities  were  just 
as  unsuccessful.  The  great  biographer  of  Milton,  Masson, 
had  no  doubt  that  before  many  years  had  elapsed  after  the 
promulgaton  of  the  statutes  for  the  University,  great  relaxa- 
tion of  strictness  had  taken  place  so  that  there  was  very 
little  security  that  the  boys  would  talk  Latin  away  from  the 
classroom.  Wigglesworth  who  got  his  diploma  from  Har- 
vard in  1661  regretfully  jotted  down  in  his  diary  about  the 
"boldness  to  transgress  the  college  law  in  speaking  Eng- 

"*  Page  289  of  the  2Oth  edition  of  his  Latin  Prose  Composition. 
"*  Harvard  Archives,  Hollis  Letters  and  Papers,  page  29. 


Ancient  Languages.  93 

lish."140  There  is  still  stronger  proof  about  the  failure  to 
have  this  Italian  dialect  imported  into  America.  In  1680  a 
couple  of  New  Yorkers,  Dutchmen,  visited  Harvard  as  one 
of  the  sights  of  the  locality  and  they  came  across  a  number 
of  boys  smoking  and  yelling  in  a  room.  These  two 
strangers  were  anxious  to  learn  something  of  this  American 
school  and  not  being  able  to  use  English  they  tried  Latin 
but  they  took  pains  to  note  down  in  their  journal  the  boys 
"could  hardly  speak  a  word  of  Latin,"  so  the  poor  inquirers 
could  learn  almost  nothing  of  the  surroundings.141  As  we 
come  farther  and  farther  from  the  early  mist  of  colonial  days 
we  find  more  and  more  slackness  in  these  Latin  require- 
ments. Less  than  two  decades  before  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill  there  is  a  report  of  a  committee  that  the  students  at 
Harvard  did  very  little  in  the  way  of  publicly  using  Latin, 
either  in  prose  or  verse  or  in  translation.142 

AVERAGE  ACQUIREMENT. 

It  is  hazardous  to  generalize  on  any  matter  of  human  en- 
deavor continued  for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  but  the 
main  results  of  this  intense  devotion  to  Latin  can  be  substan- 
tially indicated.  As  for  Latin  conversation  among  the 
youth  in  colleges  that  can  be  dismissed  summarily  as  an  al- 
luring myth  of  no  more  solid  foundation  than  the  wild 
claims  that  we  can  hear  nowadays  of  fond  admirers  who 
proudly  boast  that  their  Latin  professor  can  make  extem- 
pore Latin  speeches  as  eloquent  and  as  ornate  as  ever  Cicero 
did,  if  he  should  try,  but  of  course  he  never  does.  There  is 
no  evidence  that  the  average  boy  during  the  morning  time 
of  our  existence  in  the  new  world  could  any  more  use  Latin 
colloquially  than  his  brother  today  can  converse  in  French 
or  German  after  having  finished  the  usual  grammar  course 

140  Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates,  Vol.  i,  page  267. 

141  Memoirs  of  the  Long  Island  Historical  Society,  Vol.  2,  page  385. 

142  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  2,  page  128. 


94  Our  Colonial  C'urriculum. 

in  these  subjects  at  a  college  of  medium  grade  to-day.  If 
he  could  construct  a  few  simple  sentences  of  more  than  half 
a  dozen  words  in  length  with  any  facility  at  all,  it  is  very 
likely  he  was  considered  a  prodigy  among  his  companions. 

For  the  general  run  of  pupils  it  was  not  much  better  in 
writing  this  language.  There  were  prose  compositions, 
there  were  also  translations  from  English  into  Latin  as  regu- 
lar exercises,  there  were  Latin  declamations  and  salutatories 
on  formal  occasions,  but  that  the  ordinary  youth  could  ex- 
press themselves  with  the  pen  with  any  degree  of  ease  and 
correctness  is  a  proposition  not  to  be  maintained  for  an  in- 
stant. There  were  Latin  books  composed,  just  as  now 
there  are  Americans  who  occasionally  write  a  German  or 
French  paper  but  they  are  usually  very  careful  to  get  a  na- 
tive from  those  countries  to  revise  their  communications. 
They  in  turn  do  the  same  for  their  classes.  Even  then  when 
these  instructors  have  had  in  many  cases  the  benefit  of  resi- 
dence in  Europe  for  several  years,  how  many  of  their  stu- 
dents can  make  a  decent  dress  for  their  thoughts  in  ink 
without  the  most  laborious  use  of  grammar  and  dictionary  ? 
Two  centuries  and  more  ago  the  advantages  of  getting  Latin 
were  far  less  than  these  modern  tongues  and  the  quotum  of 
attainment  was  still  more  unsatisfactory.  They  did  then  as 
they  do  now,  they  ground  out  the  stiff  formal  exercises,  with 
a  rare  instance  of  connected  discourse  in  Latin.  A  few 
even  made  Latin  verses  but  practically  all  went  no  farther 
than  the  disconnected  sentences  illustrating  some  grammati- 
cal principle. 

As  for  reading  Latin  authors,  not  much  more  is  to  be  said. 
How  many  could  appreciate  the  eloquence  of  Cicero,  the 
sublimity  of  Virgil,  the  wit  of  Horace,  or  the  condensed  ex- 
pression of  Tacitus?  We  can  only  judge  from  the  course 
they  took  among  the  Latin  writers.  We  have  already  noted 
the  names  of  the  chief  authors  in  use  but  it  may  not  be  a 
useless  duplication  to  repeat  some  of  these.  The  Boston 


Ancient  Languages.  95 

Latin  school,  and  a  private  academy  of  probably  the  same 
grade  had  the  following  in  their  list :  Cheever's  Accidence, 
The  Colloquies  of  Corderius,  Aesop's  Fables,  Caesar,  Ovid's 
Metamorphoses,  Virgil's  Aeneid,  Cicero's  Orations,  some- 
thing of  Horace,  Eutropius,  Castalio's  Dialogues,  Lilly's 
Grammar,  and  some  prose  composition. 

The  curriculum  was  the  same  practically  in  these  two 
institutions  and  so  was  the  refreshing  frankness  with  which 
announcement  is  made  of  the  benefits  from  translations  of 
several  of  these  authors.  Some  of  them  were  even  in  paral- 
lel columns  and  very  likely  there  were  interlinearies.  These 
helps  are  not  to  be  condemned,  in  fact  they  are  to  be  com- 
mended, but  their  presence  in  the  course  does  not  indicate 
a  very  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  language  that  started 
from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber.  This  is  to  be  said  however, 
that  the  number  of  names  speaks  for  a  comprehensive  feast 
for  secondary  schools  but  then  just  as  now  there  was  an 
overlapping  of  college  and  the  training  school  below.  In 
fact  we  have  testimony  from  a  pupil  passing  through  this 
private  academy  about  the  time  of  the  revolutionary  war 
before  he  was  fifteen  and  being  admitted  to  Harvard  im- 
mediately with  so  much  credit  to  himself  that  he  was  confi- 
dent he  knew  as  much  Latin  as  the  boys  in  the  senior 
class.143  There  is  no  ground  for  suspecting  that  he  was 
puffed  up  with  his  own  achievement  as  it  was  not  at  all  a 
difficult  bar  to  be  leaped  for  getting  into  college  at  that  time 
For  a  number  of  years  a  boy  could  walk  into  Yale  with  Vir- 
gil, Cicero's  Orations,  and  some  skill  in  writing  Latin.  In 
1742  Harvard  exacted  in  an  examination  for  association  in 
her  work  thirty-nine  lines  in  the  Aeneid  and  some  extracts 
from  two  of  Cicero's  Catiline  Orations.144 

Even  for  grasping  the  mere  thought  of  these  ancient  vol- 
umes the  bulk  must  have  been  painfully  incompetent.     For 

1W  Common  School  Journal,  Vol.  12,  pages  311-315,  Oct.  15,  1850, 
Boston,  Mass. 

144  Peirce,  Hist.  Harvard,  page  238. 


96  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

imbibing  the  spirit,  for  breathing  the  flavor  of  these  master- 
pieces they  must  have  been  hopelessly  in  the  dark.  To-day 
we  are  embarrassed  with  grammars,  lexicons,  dictionaries 
of  reference  and  allusions,  histories,  philological  investiga- 
tions of  all  kinds,  and  still  the  keenest  and  strongest  among 
us  will  not  trust  his  own  powers  in  a  quotation  but  will  hunt 
up  the  passage  in  a  translation.  With  the  meagerest  appli- 
ances, without  libraries,  without  any  of  that  mass  of  knowl- 
edge that  the  most  indefatigable  research  has  given  us  for  a 
century  or  so,  how  could  the  student  of  those  early  years  get 
anything  but  the  barest,  dryest  husks  of  life  and  knowledge  ? 
With  only  a  modicum  of  conversation,  a  smattering  of 
prose  composition,  a  residuum  of  interpretation,  inferior  per- 
haps in  all  three  respects,  but  certainly  in  the  last  to  what 
is  accomplished  at  the  present  day,  a  very  interesting  prob- 
lem comes  up  as  to  how  the  student  of  today  with  a  multi- 
plicity of  subjects  gets  as  much  in  Latin  as  his  forefathers 
did  who  gave  almost  their  whole  time  to  that  branch.  In 
our  colleges  to-day  Latin  will  absorb  only  one-fourth  or  one- 
fifth  of  the  pupil's  energy  and  yet  he  will  go  as  far  in  it  as 
his  forerunners  did  who  gave  all  of  their  power  to  that 
task.  It  is  not  possible  that  the  natural  ability  today  is  three 
or  four  times  as  great  as  it  was  two  centuries  ago.  Is  the 
teaching  that  much  better  or  are  the  books  and  libraries  that 
much  improved?  It  is  a  .very  interesting  line  of  thought 
and  a  partial  solution  is  to  be  found  in  the  extra  emphasis 
laid  upon  matters  then  that  are  now  no  longer  regarded. 
Theology  was  a  great  absorbent  then  of  mental  effort  and 
her  handmaid,  disputation,  helped  vigorously  to  dissipate  the 
brains  and  time  of  students.  But  these  two  do  not  cover  the 
entire  puzzle.  Combined  with  the  enhanced  effectiveness  of 
the  teacher  and  the  more  liberal  supply  in  the  laboratory  and 
the  libraries  they  may  uncover  the  most  of  the  causes  for 
this  enormous  difference  but  there  still  remains  a  vague  bal- 
ance. The  finer  educational  environments  from  infancy 


Ancient  Languages.  97 

onward  may  partly  remove  that  or  wholly  so  but  there  still 
is  a  fascination  of  speculating  whether  heredity  gives  us 
more  brain  power  than  it  did  the  infant  far  back  in  the  past. 

THE  FAILURE  OF  THE  EFFORT. 

The  most  monumental  endeavor  in  all  history  to  establish 
a  universal  speech  came  to  naught.  Scholars  supported  and 
urged  the  plan,  the  schools  adopted  it,  the  writers  and  think- 
ers were  enthusiastic  for  it,  the  powerful  influence  of  gov- 
ernment was  invoked  in  its  behalf,  it  had  the  sanction  of  the 
church,  the  weight  of  authority  favored  it  the  whole  realm 
of  the  intellect  was  given  over  to  it,  and  yet  only  broken 
fragments  of  it  survive  the  defeat. 

Nor  was  there  any  better  success  in  substituting  Latin  for 
any  of  the  native  languages.  It  could  not  even  hold  what 
was  left  of  form  to  it  as  an  inheritance.  The  people  in  its 
very  home,  in  Italy,  and  its  neighbors,  France  and  Spain, 
refused  to  lay  aside  the  verbal  shapes  they  had  gathered 
from  infancy  and  exchange  them  for  the  terms  that  had  been 
their  ancestors'.  With  the  German,  and  Dutch,  and  Eng- 
lish, this  literary  alien  was  received  still  more  coldly.  Nor 
is  it  to  be  marvelled  that  this  imperial  mistress  was  baffled. 
The  task  was  one  of  infinite  and  incredible  difficulty.  The 
impressions  of  infancy,  the  associations  of  childhood,  twine 
and  grow  into  the  very  innermost  fibres  during  our  plastic 
stage  and  give  us  the  rootlets  from  which  our  instincts 
spring.  The  trainings  of  after  life  may  smother  these  for  a 
time  but  they  last  till  the  end.  The  will  is  powerful  and 
may  twist  and  distort  but  it  can  never  eradicate  these  deepest 
bonds  of  our  nature.  Aside  from  mere  unreasoning  con- 
servatism,- both  calm  judgment  and  good  policy  were  with 
the  unthinking  masses.  Their  own  speech  was  not  as  de- 
veloped as  Latin,  it  did  not  have  the  grammatical  forms,  it 
was  not  reduced  to  a  system,  but  it  had  what  Latin  did  not 
7 


98  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

have,  it  had  the  breath  of  life,  it  was  an  organism  shooting 
up  its  tendrils  and  sending  down  its  roots,  growing,  expand- 
ing into  the  luxury  of  twigs  and  leaves  and  flowers.  The 
scheme  was  a  failure,  and  in  spite  of  the  noble  names  con- 
nected with  it,  in  spite  of  the  beautiful  sentiment  running 
through  it,  it  deserved  to  fail. 

Perhaps  there  is  not  in  all  the  weary  landscape  of  the  past 
a  single  instance  of  one  language  supplanting  another  on  a 
large  scale  except  by  the  spontaneous  action  of  the  great 
body  of  the  people  affected  themselves.  Such  a  transforma- 
tion comes,  if  it  comes  at  all,  insensibly,  by  gradual  swap- 
ping of  terms,  but  above  all  by  the  scattering  of  the  popula- 
tion throughout  a  wide  extent  so  that  each  individual  is  sur- 
rounded and  washed  by  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  other  lan- 
guage. This  kind  of  modification  is  going  on  under  our 
eyes  in  this  country  everyday  and  has  gone  on  for  a  century 
past.  A  few  enthusiasts  in  Japan  were  once  intoxicated 
with  the  idea  of  getting  English  as  the  medium  for  the  Japa- 
nese. .The  minister  of  education,  Vicount  Mori,  deliberately 
argued  for  this  substitution.  He  was  justified  to  some  ex- 
tent in  his  fancy.  Japanese  compares  with  English  about 
as  early  German  or  English  compares  with  Latin.  So  far 
as  accurate  fitting  of  forms  goes  English  is  superior  to  Japa- 
nese just  as  Latin  was  to  English.  But  Vicount  Mori  over- 
looked the  frightful  agony  of  learning  another  speech  even 
though  it  might  be  better  than  the  original.  No  serious 
trial  was  made  to  carry  his  speculation  into  effect  but  even 
the  mention  of  it  most  likely  had  some  part  in  offending  the 
conservative  element  to  such  an  extent  that  his  assassination 
soon  came. 

We  are  thus  left  after  twenty  centuries  of  experiment  just 
as  we  were  when  the  great  intellectual  leaders  set  out  for  an 
organ  of  communication  for  the  learned.  With  the  advance 
of  the  nations  we  are  in  one  sense  worse  off  than  they  were, 
there  are  now  many  more  respositories  of  knowledge,  mak- 


Ancient  Languages.  99 

ing  the  task  of  keeping  up  with  the  progress  of  the  world 
far  more  troublesome  than  then.  But  there  seems  one  ray 
of  consolation,  that  one  of  all  these  stubborn  opponents  of 
Latin  may  finally  so  spread  as  to  be  a  virtual  speech  for  the 
educated.  This  happy  result  if  it  comes  at  all  will  come 
through  the  play  of  natural  forces  and  not  through  any 
deliberate  effort.  Conquest,  colonization,  travel,  and 
beyond  all,  trade,  will  accomplish  a  million  times  more  than 
argument  and  reason.  The  competition  for  material  gain 
may  do  what  the  greatest  beneficence  of  religion  and  au- 
thority were  helpless  to  bring  about. 

But  if  this  linguistic  millennium  ever  dawns,  its  coming 
will  not  be  assisted  very  much  by  the  body  of  teachers. 
From  the  very  nature  of  their  labor  teachers  are  conserva- 
tive. They  have  to  deal  with  the  past,  sorting  over  and  re- 
arranging the  mountains  of  accumulated  knowledge  so  as  to 
simplify  the  process  of  assimilation  by  young  minds  as  much 
as  possible.  Their  thoughts  are  with  the  past,  they  love  the 
road  that  has  been  traveled.  It  is  a  wrench  to  their  notions 
to  take  up  something  new.  The  oldest  of  all  the  gilds  of  the 
brotherhood,  the  Latin  teachers,  are  the  hardest  to  move. 
Latin  has  been  fighting  a  losing  battle  for  two  hundred 
years  but  that  narrowing  band  of  devoted  souls  follow  their 
banner  with  fanatic  faith.  They  still  mumble  and  mouth 
about  the  spirit  of  old  Rome,  the  culture,  the  fountain  head 
of  so  much  of  our  knowledge.  Their  logic  is  poor,  their 
observation  faulty,  their  common  sense  shrivelled.  This 
inner  ethereal  sanctum  of  the  ancients  is  to  be  entered  by 
painful  pounding  along  the  hard  desolate  path  of  declension 
and  conjugation  and  dull  syntax,  and  all  to  be  accomplished 
within  a  few  years  by  dictionary  and  grammar  translation 
of  selections  from  two  or  three  authors.  The  mists  of  an- 
tiquity are  still  in  their  keeping,  they  are  still  powerful  to 
affect  the  conduct  and  decision  of  college  authorities.  Latin 
is  yet  an  entrance  requirement  in  practically  all  of  our 


loo  Our  Colonial  Cuiriculum. 

higher  institutions.  Humor  and  ponderous  solemnity  do 
not  go  together.  If  they  did  this  little  tag  end  of  the  Roman 
speech  would  have  been  dropped  at  the  college  gate  years 
ago,  and  neither  would  the  windy  battle  of  empty  words  and 
terms  ever  have  raged  over  the  proper  pronunciation  of 
Latin.  The  schoolman  could  never  tell  how  many  angels 
could  stand  on  the  point  of  a  needle,  can  the  advocates  of 
Roman  pronunciation  know  anything  more  about  how  the 
Latin  words  sounded  to  Roman  ears? 

GREEK. 

Greek  was  an  elder  peeress  sister  to  Latin,  one  of  the  three 
"linguae  elegantes  et  ingenuae,"  the  fountain  head  of  "art, 
literature,  and  science,"  forming  with  her  companion  the 
double  thread  from  which  our  civilization  today  has  been 
spun.  It  was  the  source  of  "literary  and  philosophical  views 
of  the  world."145  Notwithstanding  these  noble  associations, 
this  classical  scion  fell  into  disfavor  because  of  the  taint  of 
heresy,  and  the  Greek  language  for  ecclesiastical  purposes 
was  abandoned  by  Latin  Christendom  in  the  8th  century 
when  the  great  schism  arose  between  the  eastern  and  west- 
ern churches.  Only  the  most  elementary  acquaintance  is  to 
be  found  with  this  tongue  except  on  the  part  of  some  indus- 
trious monks.  There  is  record  of  an  occasional  professor- 
ship in  this  branch  during  the  middle  ages.146  But  it  was 
not  until  the  first  faint  streaks  of  humanist  revival  that  any 
serious  attempt  was  made  at  the  scholastic  study  ot  this 
early  Creech. 

THE  BEGINNING  IN  ITALY. 

To  aaly  belongs  the  credit  of  leading  in  this  culture,  and 
in  her  schools  were  to  be  found  Homer,  Herodotus,  Xeno- 
phon,  Isocrates,  Thucydides,  Demosthenes,  Plutarch  and 

**  Universities  and  Their  Sons,  Introduction  by  W.  T.  Harris. 
""H.  Rashdall,  Universities  in  Middle  Ages,  Vol.  2,  page  459. 


Ancient  Languages.  101 

some  of  the  Greek  church  fathers.  A  schoolmaster  of  the 
period  promised  to  turn  out  pupils  proficient  at  understand- 
ing these  writers  after  twelve  months'  instruction  but  we  are 
at  liberty  very  seriously  to  doubt  his  word.147 

THE  GERMAN  START. 

Father  northward,  in  Germany,  after  the  chains  of  bond- 
age were  stricken  from  the  intellect  under  the  lead  of  Martin 
Luther,  there  are  also  evidences  of  leaning  towards  Greek  in 
the  educational  work.  Melanchthon  provided  for  it  in  his 
far  reaching  scheme,  even  to  the  extent  of  having  Greek 
plays  to  be  acted  by  the  pupils.  He  himself  was  here  as  in 
other  fields  very  proficient  and  prepared  a  Greek  grammar 
when  only  sixteen  of  which  there  were  very  many  editions. 

RECEPTION  IN  ENGLAND. 

The  infection  fled  to  England  but  it  met  with  almost  the 
fierce  opposition  that  an  insidious  disease,  such  as  smallpox, 
arouses.  It  is  true  John  Locke  very  placidly  thought  that 
it  was  necessary  for  a  scholar  as  being  the  foundation  for 
all  our  learning  but  of  no  advantage  to  a  gentleman,  and 
even  the  learned  kept  it  for  only  a  short  time.  There  was 
room  provided  for  it  in  the  school  statutes  of  Henry  VIII 
but  no  stress  laid  upon  it.  When  it  asked  introduction  at 
Oxford  in  the  early  part  of  the  i6th  century  there  was  a  bit- 
ter fight  against  this  new  comer  by  the  students  who  jibed, 
sneered,  ridiculed,  abused  and  even  fought  with  stave  and 
fist  against  the  applicant.  Sir  Thomas  Moore,  who  died 
such  a  pathetic  martyr's  death,  protested  against  this  bar- 
baric treatment  and  finally  the  king  came  to  his  aid  and  the 
royal  influence  was  cast  in  favor  of  the  fugitive  to  the  ex- 
tent of  allowing  those  who  desired  to  take  up  this  study.148 
But  for  nearly  a  century  it  was  scarcely  recognized  at  Cam- 

14T  Vittorino,  by  W.  H.  Woodward,  page  225. 

148  J.  B.  Mullinger,  Vol.  i,  page  525  of  his  University  of  Cambridge. 


IO2  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

bridge.  There  is  a  faint  record  of  two  people  about  1600  in 
one  of  the  colleges  being  able  to  understand  it.149  It  was 
indeed  difficult  to  get  instructors  as  there  were  so  few  who 
were  at  all  proficient  in  this  language,  but  by  the  time  of 
Milton  the  Greek  authors  were  read  in  fragments.150  Along 
with  Latin  and  Hebrew,  it  was  one  of  the  three  languages  to 
be  spoken — so  the  statutes  ran. 

THE  FAINT  INFUSION  IN  AMERICA. 

Even  before  1700  we  can  find  such  an  unusual  author  as 
Isocrates  in  the  list  for  Harvard  along  with  the  others  such 
as  to  be  found  scattered  in  Italy,  Germany,  and  England, 
with  Yale  a  close  second  in  this  respect,  but  they  meant  very 
little  if  we  are  to  trust  some  individual  testimony.  Far 
down  to  the  Revolution,  Josiah  Quincy  could  note  that  the 
requirement  for  Greek  entrance  was  "slight  and  superficial" 
covering  Gloucester's  Greek  grammar,  with  ability  to  con- 
strue the  four  gospels.151  And  that  too,  even  when  Harvard 
possessed  a  font  of  Greek  type  which  was  lost  by  fire  in 
1764.  At  Yale  Baldwin  discloses  the  "pony"  rides  in  Homer 
at  a  little  earlier  time  than  this.152  The  freshman  was  ex- 
pected to  have  read  the  new  testament,  and  perhaps  in  the 
subsequent  four  years  he  did  very  little  more  in  Creek.153 

An  imposing  appearance  is  before  us  of  classes  skipping 
nimbly  from  Greek  to  Latin,  to  English,  to  Hebrew,  and 
then  back  again,  but  a  very  level-headed  Yale  president  has 
most  likely  marred  this  lovely  illusion  when  he  suggests  that 
about  all  the  high-sounding  phrase  means  is  the  parrot-like 
recitation  of  corresponding  passages  that  had  been  picked 
out  beforehand  by  the  tutor  and  required  to  be  memorized 

"*  Thomas  Baker,  St.  John's,  page  191 ;   Cambridge,  England,  1869, 
2  vols. 

150  Masson's  Milton,  Vol.  i,  page  66. 

151  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  32,  page  873. 
132  W.  L.  Kingsley,  History  of  Yale,  Vol.  i,  page  444. 
153  W.  L.  Kingsley,  History  of  Yale,  Vol.  2,  page  500. 


Ancient  Languages.  103 

for  exhibition  purposes  perhaps.154  Most  likely  this  is  what 
President  Dunster,  of  Harvard,  meant,  in  1649,  when  he 
wrote  to  London  about  the  remarkable  proficiency  of  his 
students  in  translating  from  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  into 
Greek.165 

WHAT  THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL  DID. 

If  it  was  only  a  snack  in  the  higher  ranges  what  more 
than  a  bite  was  to  be  expected  in  the  lower?  There  were 
certain  authors  mentioned  in  the  curriculum  of  the  Boston 
Latin  School  and  its  partner,  Lovell's  Private  Academy.  In 
the  eight  years  of  the  former  the  students  "dipped  into 
Xenophon  and  Homer."150 

In  its  yoke- fellow  there  are  listed  Ward's  Grammar, 
Greek  Testament,  and  two  books  of  the  Illiad,  with  the 
pleasant  confession  of  a  translation,  Latin  or  English.  Fur- 
ther, as  a  postscript,  we  are  informed  by  a  sincere  student, 
"this  was  all  my  Greek  education  at  school."187 

VIRGINIA  VIEW. 

It  was  the  ambition  of  the  educators  in  this  southern 
colony  to  reproduce  the  schools  across  the  water,  but  Greek 
must  have  been  the  fag  end  for  these  efforts.  There  is  not 
much  data  to  go  upon,  but  one  or  two  witnesses  do  let  in 
some  light  upon  the  estimate  of  Greek.  Two  years  before 
Thomas  Jefferson  penned  his  immortal  paper,  a  private  tu- 
tor amuses  us  by  his  account  of  how  some  of  his  boy  pupils 
swore  at  Homer  and  wished  that  he  had  him  there  in  Vir- 
ginia so  that  he  could  kick  him  as  he  had  been  told  that 
Homer  invented  Greek.158  Possibly  this  is  a  blunt  out-crop- 

54  T.  D.  Woolsey,  in  Kingsley's  Yale,  Vol.  2,  page  406. 
™  Publications  of  American  Jewish  Hist.  Soc.,  No.  2,  page  75. 
158  Otis,  a  student,  gives  this  evidence. 

""Common  School  Journal,  Vol.  12,  page  311,  Oct.  15,  1850,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

158  Fithian's  Journal,  page  91. 


IO4  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ping  of  that  tough  fibrous  boy  nature  that  luckily  survives 
all  of  the  fads  of  parents  and  pedagogues  and  school  boards, 
but  it  may  also  be  an  index  to  the  little  time  given  up  to 
Greek.  Six  years  later  a  youth  wandering  from  Williams- 
burg  to  Harvard  was  graciously  permitted  to  enter  without 
the  Greek  requirement  on  the  ground  that  Greek  was  not 
taught  at  Williamsburg.159 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  the  Virginia  men  and  women 
were  behind  their  relatives  in  the  colder  climes  northward, 
as  we  are  aware  that  not  only  Jefferson,  but  many  of  his 
compeers  knew  this  language  in  the  conventional  way  of  the 
times,  but  there  is  a  foretaste  of  the  higher  education  of 
woman  today  in  the  knowledge  that  Margaret  Wythe  had  of 
Greek  which  she  put  to  good  use  in  leading  her  son  George 
through  the  mazes  of  this  old-world  tongue.160 

AIDS  IN  STUDYING  GREEK. 

The  Greek  grammars  of  the  period  were  fully  up  to  the 
standard  of  Latin,  and  in  fact  some  of  them  would  almost 
serve  at  the  present  day.  In  dictionaries  there  was  much 
greater  deficiency  than  in  Latin.  In  fact  nearly  all  of  the 
Greek  was  learned  through  the  medium  of  Latin.  The  notes 
on  the  authors  if  there  were  any  were  usually  in  this  Roman 
garb.  To  some  extent  the  study  of  Greek  was  really  another 
method  of  approaching  the  Latin  problem. 

THE  SUM  TOTAL. 

A  mere  taste  of  three  or  four  Greek  authors  at  most,  with 
a  tolerable  facility  in  the  four  evangelists  of  the  new  testa- 
ment is  about  as  much  as  the  average  student  got  of  that 
royal  feast  prepared  in  that  little  peninsular  in  southern  Eur- 
ope centuries  ago.  All  the  prodigal  wealth  of  literature,  of 
philosophy,  of  art  that  are  now  at  the  command  of  college 

"*  Calendar,  Vol.  2,  page  140,  Mss.,  Harvard  Archives. 
180  William  and  Mary  Quarterly,  Oct.,  1897,  page  77. 


Ancient  Languages.  105 

students  were  unknown  by  him.  Theology  insisted  on  a  mo- 
dicum and  scholarship  asked  for  a  tag  end.  When  these  two 
were  satisfied  the  matter  was  ended. 

HEBREW. 

Hebrew  was  ranked  as  the  third  of  the  "elegantes  et  in- 
genuae  linguae,"  but  from  sanctity  of  religion  considered 
the  highest  of  the  trio,  and  also  was  the  least  studied.  All 
European  languages  looked  up  to  it  as  the  mother  of  ton- 
gues and  each  was  ambitious  to  trace  its  lineage  even  to  the 
speech  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  Proselytism  was  the  purpose 
of  the  first  efforts  towards  teaching  it.  It  was  urged  in  the 
middle  ages  that  this  language  should  be  taught  at  the  uni- 
versities in  order  that  the  Jews  might  be  converted.  The 
modern  study  of  it  may  be  said  to  date  from  about  the  I7th 
century,  the  stimulus  being  contributed  by  Reuchlin  who 
published  a  Hebrew  grammar.  There  are  some  traces  of  in- 
struction in  it,  but  the  rudiments  only  in  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, although  the  statutes  required  it  as  one  of  the  three 
languages  to  be  used  colloquially  by  students. 

It  was  only  in  keeping  with  the  religious  atmosphere  at 
the  daybreak  of  our  existence  that  attention  should  be  drawn 
by  the  watchman  on  the  higher  points  towards  this  sacred 
dialect.  "How"  asked  one  of  these  higher  souls,  "can  the 
redeemed  enjoy  the  thrilling  music  of  Heaven  unless  they 
can  understand  the  words  that  the  angels  use?" — a  horrible 
deprivation  of  spiritual  delight.  As  usual,  enthusiasm  lacked 
common  sense.  The  unregenerate  did  not  care  to  come  to 
the  banquet  even  when  the  road  was  made  plain.  A  teacher 
was  employed  in  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School  by  the  mid- 
dle of  the  seventeenth  century  for  the  triune  care  of  Latin, 
Greek  and  Hebrew  so  that  the  youth  could  be  prepared  to 
enter  college.  But  the  hard  practical  sense  of  the  early 
pioneers,  full  of  energy  and  animal  spirits,  did  not  appre- 


io6  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ciate  the  glories  of  Hebrew.     The  poor  tutors  at  Harvard 
had  a  stony  path  to  tread. 

OBJECTION  To  THE  STUDY. 

Wigglesworth  records  in  his  diary  on  August  29,  1653: 
"My  pupils  all  came  to  me  this  day  to  desire  they  might 
cease  learning  Hebrew ;  I  withstood  it  with  all  the  reason  I 
could,  yet  all  will  not  satisfy  them."  All  teachers  will  appre- 
ciate his  unhappy  predicament  in  trying  to  thrust  down  the 
throat  of  his  pupils  food  that  they  rebelled  against.  From 
sorrow  he  rapidly  dropped  into  anger  and  abuse.  Less  than 
six  months  later  he  begins  to  refer  to  "the  obstinate  unto- 
wardness  of  some  of  my  pupils  in  refusing  to  read  Hebrew," 
and  "spirit  of  unbridled  licentiousness,"  that  "will  be  the 
ruin  of  the  whole  country ;"  here  again  another  instance 
added  to  the  million  of  the  absurd  lengths  to  which  the  en- 
thusiast in  any  department  in  life  can  go,  all  the  more  ridic- 
ulous when  his  zeal  is  linked  with  religious  fervor.  But  he 
does  not  effect  anything  in  the  way  of  improvement  as  he 
goes  on  to  jot  down  "pupils  forward  negligence  in  the 
Hebrew  still  much  exercises  me."161 

JUDAH  MONIS. 

Here  in  many  other  cases  Harvard  was  the  scout  for  edu- 
cational advance.  After  teaching  Hebrew  almost  since  her 
foundation,  she  first  established  a  professorship  of  the  orien- 
tal languages  and  Hebrew  in  1764.  Judah  Monis,  a  con- 
verted Jew  rabbi,  born  in  southern  Europe,  an  emigrant  to 
America  in  1720,  had  been  in  charge  of  these  branches  for 
many  years.  The  course  was  not  compulsory  and  only  a  few 
took  up  the  class.  It  was  perhaps  for  this  that  he  resigned 
in  1761.  Three  years  later  the  full  chair  was  put  into  effect 
and  Professor  S.  Sewall  was  placed  in  charge.162  Monis 

1M  Sibley,  Vol.  i,  page  265,  of  Harvard  Graduates. 
1M  Peirce,  Hist.  Harvard,  page  231. 


Ancient  Languages.  107 

prepared  a  grammar  of  the  Hebrew  language  which  was 
ordered  to  be  obtained  by  all  of  the  sophomores  and  fresh- 
men at  a  cost  of  14  shillings  a  copy.  In  this  same  enactment 
on  September  30,  1735,  freshmen  were  required  to  attend 
Hebrew  instruction  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  quarter  and 
all  other  students  to  attend  this  work  "at  such  times  and  so 
often  as  the  corporation  shall  determine.103  President  Lev- 
erett  has  preserved  this  description  of  the  work:  "one  ex- 
ercise in  a  week  shall  be  the  writing  the  Hebrew  and  Rab- 
binical, the  rest  shall  be  in  this  gradual  method,  i.  Copying 
the  grammar  and  reading.  2.  Reciting  it  and  reading  it.  3. 
Construing.  4.  Parsing.  5.  Translating.  6.  Composing.  7. 
Reading  without  points."164  It  was  perhaps  in  part  due  to 
the  influence  of  Monis  that  Greenwood,  in  the  first  Ameri- 
can arithmetic  in  existence  has  tables  of  scripture  measure 
of  length  and  capacity  such  as: 

4  fingers'  breadth  make  I  hand's  breadth. 
2  hands'  breadth  make  I  span. 
2  spans  make  i  cubit,  etc. 

also  on  capacity  he  has 

4  logs  make  i  cab. 
3  cabs  make  i  hin,  etc. 

WHAT  WAS  DONE  AT  YALE. 

On  the  early  periods  we  have  scanty  information  but 
thanks  to  that  cheerful  and  voluminous  diarist  Stiles,  we 
can  make  up  a  pretty  fair  picture  of  Hebrew  study  about 
the  middle  of  the  i8th  century  and  onward.  Stiles  overflows 
with  abounding  earnestness  in  the  Hebrew  cause.  He  tells 
of  "writing  a  sermon  in  Hebrew  on  Ezra."185  He  formed  a 
voluntary  class  in  Hebrew  but  with  what  success  we  do  not 

188  Harvard  Archives,  Mss.  College  Book,  No.  i,  page  206. 
144  J.  Quincy,  History  Harvard,  II,  442. 
188  Ezra  Stiles's  Diary,  Vol.  3,  page  243. 


log  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

know.  Without  being  ungratful  to  his  memory,  there  may 
be  a  dim  suspicion  that  the  boys  cared  no  more  for  it  at  Yale 
than  they  did  at  Harvard.  He  had  made  it  an  obligation  on 
the  freshmen  when  he  became  president  in  1777,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  scholastic  term  two  years  later  he  confided  thus 
in  his  diary :  "this  month  the  freshmen  have  recited  Hebrew 
to  me.  I  began  with  the  alphabet  and  carried  the  whole  class 
through  more  or  less  according  to  their  arrivals.  I  divided 
them  into  two  parts — one  have  receited  the  first  part  of  the 
second  Psalm; the  other  and  principal  part  have  finished 
translating  the  seven  first  Psalms  and  parsed  the  first  and 
part  of  the  second  Psalms.  I  do  not  find  that  any  class  has 
been  carried  through  one-half  so  much  these  many 
years."186 

Freedom  of  choice  was  about  this  time  allowed  as  Hebrew 
was  "disagreeable  to  a  number"  as  Stiles  himself  admits. 
But  although  the  influence  of  the  man  and  the  office  was 
great  to  induce  twenty-two  out  of  thirty-nine  to  ask  for 
Hebrew  even  the  little  that  was  accomplished  was  a  rem- 
nant. By  1775  the  subject  was  almost  extinct  at  Yale  as 
the  seniors  only  worried  through  two  or  three  of  the  Psalms 
in  Hebrew  after  a  fashion."167  But  even  the  honor  of  being 
instructed  by  the  president  of  the  institution  was  not  enough 
to  sustain  the  interest  although  he  insisted  that  all  classes 
should  study  this  divine  speech.  Towards  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury we  have  it  from  an  old  student  as  follows :  "we  learned 
the  alphabet  and  worried  through  two  or  three  Psalms  after 
a  fashion ;  with  most  of  us  it  was  mere  pretense,"  and  this 
too  even  with  all  the  students  gazing  upon  the  president 
as  a  very  monument  of  proficiency  "in  Hebrew  as  well  as 
several  other  Eastern  dialects."168 

18*  Stiles's  Diary,  Vol.  3,  page  350. 

167  W.  L.  Kingsley,  History  of  Yale,  Vol.  2,  page  500. 

1M  Mason,  page  n. 


Ancient  Languages.  109 

HEBREW  GRAMMARS. 

Just  as  with  Greek  Hebrew  was  really  subservient  to 
Latin  originally  as  the  grammars  were  cast  in  that  form. 
In  that  repository  of  old  textbooks  which  is  a  mecca  to  all 
students  of  pedagogical  history  in  this  country  and  also  in- 
despensable  for  the  investigator  of  nearly  every  branch  of 
American  history,  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  in 
Worcester,  Mass.,  are  several  of  these  Hebrew  grammars 
which  it  is  hardly  worth  our  while  to  do  more  than  refer  to 
here.  One  of  the  oldest  goes  back  three  years  before  1600, 
London,  being  yoked  with  Chaldee,  and  garbed  in  Latin. 
There  we  also  find  one  by  Bennet,  perhaps  the  first  in  Amer- 
ica, being  dated  1731  in  the  third  edition,  also  couched  in 
Latin.  We  come  across  one  in  manuscript,  very  clear  hand, 
in  English,  but  without  date,  comprising  100  pages,  being 
an  evidence  very  likely  of  strict  attention  to  the  subject  in 
part  and  a  rather  slender  pocketbook  in  another  part.  The 
most  widely  used  of  all,  it  is  rather  safe  to  say,  is  the  one 
by  the  Harvard  man,  Monis,  a  copy  to  be  seen  in  the  Bos- 
ton Public  Library.  This  appeared  in  1735,  ninety-four  pages 
square  octavo,  "for  use  of  the  students  of  Harvard,"  "being 
an  essay  to  bring  the  Hebrew  language  into  English." 
Another  Harvard  teacher,  Israel  Lyons,  some  third  of  a 
century  later,  puts  his  imprint  upon  a  volume  of  83  pages, 
octavo,  with  a  sketch  of  Hebrew  poetry.  Like  Monis  he  has 
"praxis"  or  exercises  of  translation  in  both  ways. 

There  are  other  examples  of  these  grammars  but  they  are 
practically  all  the  same,  being  only  tedious  duplications  of 
each  other  pretty  much  as  Latin  grammars  are  at  the  pre- 
sent day.  The  substantiate  are  the  same  and  in  these  cases 
they  hardly  go  beyond  the  rudiments.  The  whole  subject  of 
Hebrew  was  a  harmless  hobby  of  religionists  so  far  as  af- 
fecting the  current  of  the  student  body  or  life.  It  was  a  waste 
of  time  but  hardly  more  so  than  many  branches  at  college 
today,  and,  then  as  now,  it  came  at  a  period  when  leisure 


1 10  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

had  just  as  well  be  put  upon  an  intellectual  puzzle  as  drawn 
away  in  idle  chatter  and  destructive  games  and  pranks. 

CHAU>EE  AND  SYRIAC. 

These  two  other  Semitic  dialects  are  mentioned  in  the 
course  of  study  of  Harvard  university  shortly  after  the 
foundation  of  the  institution  was  made,  the  former  appear- 
ing- in  the  list  of  second  year  studies  and  the  latter  in  the 
third  year.  They  are  not  noted  in  any  subsequent  announce- 
ments, nor  has  any  light  been  thrown  upon  their  pedagogical 
use  aside  from  filling  space,  looking  large  and  sounding 
learned,  soothing  the  pardonable  pride  of  some  scholarly  in- 
structor and  pleasing  the  vanity  of  some  one  or  two  students 
that  may  have  studied  them  very  briefly.  The  same  kind  of 
scholarly  display  can  be  observed  in  the  catalogues  of  insti- 
tutions a  few  years  ago  that  put  down  Sanskrit  as  one  of 
the  studies  offered. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THEOLOGY  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  other  ancient  languages  were 
to  the  medieval  educator  only  keys  for  unlocking  the  inner 
court  of  humanity.  As  other  subjects  were  added  to  the  slow 
path  of  development  they  also  were  merely  supplementary 
aids  for  penetrating  to  the  very  core  of  life,  for  understand- 
ing our  existence  and  for  leading  us  to  the  other  world. 
Grammar,  or  Latin,  though  dealing  with  pagan  poets  and 
church  fathers  in  the  effort  to  write  and  speak  as  they  did, 
was  for  the  early  teacher  only  a  process  of  sharpening  the 
mind  so  that  it  could  "grasp  the  right  sense  of  the  divine 
words."189  Prosody  was  necessary  for  appreciating  the 
Psalms,  rhetoric  for  admiring  the  beauty  of  the  Holy 
Fathers,  dialectics  to  enable  the  minister  to  meet  and  van- 
quish heretics,  arithmetic  for  unfolding  the  mystery  of  the 
"numbers  and  measures"  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures,  ge- 
ometry for  the  circles  told  of  in  the  description  of  the  ark 
and  the  temples,  music  and  astronomy  for  use  in  the  divine 
service.  Theology  indeed  comprehended  philosophy  and  em- 
braced within  its  horizontal  sweep  the  whole  stretch  of 
knowledge.  It  of  course  was  based  originally  on  the  Bible 
and  then  secondarily  on  the  early  writers.  The  method  of 
teaching  it  was  very  routine,  chiefly  to  copy,  compile,  and 
abridge,  to  compare  passages  with  one  another  so  as  to 
distill  the  very  essence  of  their  meaning.  Dialectical  skill  was 
whetted  to  a  keen  edge  because  the  basic  authority  was  not 
allowed  to  be  doubted.  Later  under  the  pioneering  advances 
of  Aquinas  and  Scotus  theology  passed  into  the  Metaphys- 
ical stage,  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  deductions  of  the 
sources  with  the  dictates  of  reason. 

im  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  History  of  Education,  page  101. 


H2  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Where  everything  converges  to  one  center  it  perhaps 
seemed  unnecessary  to  make  a  special  head  of  that  point, 
or  perhaps  there  were  not  means  for  paying  special  atten- 
tion to  this  subject,  but  at  any  rate  it  was  nearly  a  century 
after  the  founding  of  Harvard  University  before  there  was 
established  a  regular  chair  of  theology.  It  was  in  1720  that 
Thomas  Hollis,  the  generous  English  friend  of  the  needy 
institution,  provided  by  donation  for  "a  professor  of  divin- 
ity to  read  lectures  in  the  halls  of  the  college  unto  the  stu- 
dents."170 There  were  to  be  two  lectures  weekly  on  "posi- 
tive and  controversial  divinity,"  on  "church  history,  on  Jew- 
ish antiquity,"  also  to  cover  "cases  of  conscience"  and  "crit- 
ical exposition  of  Scripture."  Hollis  himself  was  very  lib- 
eral in  his  views  and  only  stipulated  that  the  Bible  was  the 
perfect  rule  of  faith  and  manners.,  but  when  the  authorities 
sought  to  carry  out  the  terms  of  his  gift  discussion  broke 
forth  as  to  the  requirements  of  faith,  and  the  upshot  of  it 
all  was  the  absurd  test  of  a  belief  in  the  divine  right  of  in- 
fant baptism  before  one  could  hold  position.  The  lecture 
was  to  be  preceded  by  a  short  prayer  and  the  general 
scheme  was  based  upon  the  similar  work  at  the  University 
of  Edinburgh. 

Of  course  this  subject  had  been  in  the  Harvard  curricu- 
lum from  the  start.  In  the  earliest  published  scheme,  in 
1643,  we  find  "divinity  catechetical,"  but  thus  far  it  has  not 
been  discovered  what  was  actually  done.  It  is  a  safe  pre- 
sumption that  nothing  more  was  attempted  than  a  very  sys- 
tematic drill  upon  the  main  doctrines  of  formal  theology, 
with  the  chief  events  of  Biblical  history. 

AT  EDINBURGH  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  BEFORE. 

The  rise  of  protestantism  invigorated  education  in  Scot- 
land, above  all  religious  education,  because  if  a  man  was  to 
save  himself  by  his  own  interpretation  of  the  Bible  it  was 

170  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  I,  page  239. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  113 

the  most  solemn  duty  of  life  to  know  what  was  in  the  Bible. 
Even  as  far  back  as  the  middle  of  the  i6th  century  stress 
was  laid  upon  theology  as  one  of  the  important  branches  of 
study.  With  Greek  and  Hebrew  as  the  base,  five  years  were 
given  to"  divinity,  both  testaments  being  carefully  gone 
over.171  Less  than  two  decades  later  divinity  students  had 
first  to  complete  four  years  in  the  university  proper  and  then 
take  two  years  additional  in  their  own  subject.  Soon  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  authorities  mounted  up  so  high  that  a 
beautiful  scheme  was  unfolded  of  four  years  covering  He- 
brew, Chaldee,  Syriac  and  Greek  so  as  to  wring  the  last 
atom  of  thought  from  the  Holy  word  by  a  comparison  of 
these  different  versions.  The  crown  of  the  plan  was  a 
series  of  lectures  on  systematic  divinity.172 

On  this  foundation,  by  1600,  Robert  Rollock  developed  a 
famous  school  of  theology,  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  times. 
He  included  the  germs  of  all  divisions  of  the  subject.  He 
dictated  analyses  of  certain  portions  of  the  Bible,  he  dis- 
cussed general  religious  topics,  he  dipped  into  the  contro- 
versies with  the  established  church,  and  he  pointed  out  the 
application  of  principles  to  practice.  A  score  of  years  later, 
in  1620,  the  first  chair  of  theology  was  established  at  Edin- 
burgh by  the  separation  of  the  duties  of  the  holder  from 
those  of  principal,  the  two  having  been  combined  up  to  this 
time.  The  burden  was  not  a  heavy  one  as  the  incumbent  had 
to  give  two  public  lectures  weeklv  hold  "disputes"  of  his 
classes  once  weekly,  public  "disputes"  one  a  month,  have 
private  exercises  in  Latin,  and  instruct  in  Hebrew  regularly. 
Private  beneficience  was  aroused  so  that  donations  to  the 
extent  of  some  1500  pounds  came  for  the  endowment  of 
the  chair.178  There  was  no  substantial  change  for  nearly 

m  Grant,  University  of  Edinburgh,  Vol.  I,  page  63. 
m  Grant's  Edinburgh,  Vol.  i,  page  93. 

m  Grant's  Edinburgh,  Vol.   i,  page  334;    also  Vol.   i,  page  210; 
Vol.  2,  page  280. 
8 


j  14  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

another  century,  until  1702  when  a  chair  of  ecclesiastical 
history  was  added. 

Fervent  zeal  had  thus  experimented  with  this  course  of 
study.  Its  energy  however  either  relaxed  or  was  turned  into 
other  channels,  as  the  learned  historian  of  the  institution 
remarks  that  for  the  next  150  years  practically  no  modifica- 
tion or  improvement  is  to  be  noted.  It  was  still  in  its  vigor 
when  Hollis  turned  to  it  largely  as  his  model  for  the  design 
he  had  to  found  such  a  chair  in  the  new  world.  So  far  as 
we  can  judge  from  the  meagre  data  to  be  had  now  there 
was  but  slight  difference  between  the  essentials  of  the  two 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Both  had  the  Semitic  lan- 
guages as  preparatory,  both  exacted  the  reading  of  the 
Bible  in  these  original  tongues,  both  called  for  critical  and 
textual  study,  and  both  had  history. 

PETER  LOMBARD. 

But  the  theology  at  both,  as  well  as  at  all  other  medieval 
institutions  rested  upon  that  wheel  horse,  Peter  Lombard, 
who  died  about  the  middle  of  the  I2th  century.  His  book 
of  "sentences"  is  the  bed  rock  lying  far  beneath  the  mass 
of  commentators  that  reared  themselves  upon  him.  The 
aim  of  this  giant  was  to  systematize  all  of  the  Christian 
teachings.  A  job  of  infinite  difficulty  he  set  himself  to  har- 
monize the  Bible  with  all  of  the  deliverances  of  the  church 
fathers,  so  as  to  extract  the  very  marrow  of  knowledge  in 
every  department.174  He  has  a  couple  of  hundred  proposi- 
tions, each  one  of  which  he  puts  through  his  logical  ma- 
chine in  the  way  of  expounding,  amplifying  and  proving. 
He  shied  at  nothing,  not  hesitating  to  plunge  into  those 
snares  of  trinity,  and  of  predestination.  He  is  really  in- 
genious on  the  latter,  drawing  a  distinction  as  fine  as  a  fila- 

174  H.  Rashdall,  Vol.  I,  Universities  in  the  Middle  Ages,  page  57. 
Also  Mullinger,  Cambridge,  page  59.  "Sentences"  does  not  mean  a 
grammatical  term  but  the  "opinions  or  tenets"  or  "truths"  or  "deliv- 
erances" of  the  authorities.  See  Mullinger,  pages  7,  59. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  115 

ment  between  predestination  and  fore-knowledge.  What 
the  deity  himself  is  going  to  do  is,  to  Lombard,  predestina- 
tion ;  what  the  deity  knows  is  going  to  happen  is  fore-know- 
ledge,— a  very  soothing  pacification  of  omniscience  and  free- 
dom of  the  will. 

OTHER  AUTHORS. 

Of  the  men  indebted  to  Lombard  for  their  method  and 
of  commentators  on  the  scriptures,  there  are  myriads,  but  it 
is  necessary  for  us  to  take  only  a  few  of  the  more  leading 
ones  in  use  in  America.  Nonnus  and  Duport  whose  names 
we  see  in  the  courses  of  study  in  American  institution,  had 
Latin  paraphrase  and  metrical  versions  of  certain  parts  of 
the  scripture,  the  former  of  some  of  the  new  testament,  and 
the  latter  of  the  Psalms. 

But  it  is  of  those  who  attempted  to  apply  logic  and  scien- 
tific precision  to  theology  that  we  find  the  greatest  literary 
monuments.  Heereboord's  Meletemata  is  an  ambitious 
sweep  over  the  whole  realm  of  the  known,  seeking  to  con- 
nect everything  with  the  theological  center.  A  fat  quarto 
does  Richard  Blome  produce  about  1700  by  the  translation 
of  Anthony  LeGrand's  Body  of  Philosophy  according  to 
DesCartes. 

It  is  two  others  though  that  give  us  the  fullest  foliage, 
William  Ames  and  John  Wollebius.  Ames  was  some  100 
years  earlier  than  Wollebius,  and  it  is  to  him  that  Hollis 
perhaps  owes  his  expression  "cases  of  conscience."  Ames's 
volume  devotes  its  first  part  to  this  particular  topic.  It  is 
really  a  reproduction  of  Lombard  as  the  title  to  one  of  the 
parts  reads:  "the  marrow  of  sacred  divinity  drawn  out  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  interpreters  thereof  and  brought 
into  method."  He  has  a  most  elaborate  outline  of  some  fif- 
teen pages  containing  such  topics  as  these :  "that  which  may 
be  known  of  God  or  his  back  parts,"  "God  and  His  essence," 
"efficiency  of  God,"  "creation,"  special  guberaation  of  an- 


Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

gels  and  men,"  "man's  flesh,"  "end  of  world,"  "virtue," 
"time  of  divine  worship."  Very  likely  with  the  first  virus 
of  science  working  in  the  veins  of  education  came  a  yearn- 
ing for  something  more  systematized  and  condensed  hence 
Wollebius,  translated  by  Ross.175  A  cast-iron  logical  tree 
in  his  treatise,  springing  from  the  great  tap  root  that  "God 
is  a  spirit  existent  eternally  in  himself  *  *  *  an  entity  * 
*  incomprehensible  *  *  *  without  beginning,  without  end, 
without  change."  With  this  pregnant  premise  he  goes  on 
with  all  the  placidity  of  a  machine  man  to  crawl  over  every 
branch,  .twig  and  leaf  that  can  possibly  evolve  from  such 
a  profound  depth.  He  even  laboriously  settles  to  his  own 
satisfaction  that  "marriage  is  honorable."  Natural  prompt- 
ings are  at  conflict  with  his  basic  notions.  He  wishes  to 
defend  war,  and  yet  there  are  certain  passages  very  trouble- 
some to  get  over  still  he  settles  the  matter  that  it  was 
"pleasing  to  God,  and  profitable  to  the  state,"  and  is  lawful, 
because  a  captain  and  centurion  are  mentioned  in  the  new 
testament  as  among  the  faithful. 

BITING  COMMENTS. 

In  his  slashing  attack  upon  the  education  of  his  day  in 
general  John  Webster  gave  a  few  sounding  whacks  at  the- 
ology. To  him  it  was  "but  a  confused  chaos  of  needless 
frivolous,  fruitless,  trivial,  vain,  curious,  impertinent, 
knotty,  ungodly,  irreligious,  thorny  and  hel-hatc'ht  disputes, 
altercations,  doubts,  questions  and  endless  j  anglings,  multi- 
plied and  spawned  forth  even  to  monstrosity  and  nauseous- 
ness."176  He  is  no  mere  railer  snapping  and  snarling  at 
something  he  dislikes,  but  a  man  of  sense  and  rapier-like  in- 
sight, although  it  is  not  very  discernible  that  he  exercised 
any  immediate  influence  upon  the  pedagogics  of  his  day. 
There  are  some  things  that  cannot  be  taught  no  matter  how 

175  W.  L.  Kingsley's  Hist.  Yale,  Vol.  2,  page  499. 
"'John  Webster,  Examen  Academiarum,  page  15. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  117 

sympathetic  and  skillful  the  master,  and  all  those  things 
of  the  spirit  are  in  the  realm  of  the  unteachable.  Growth 
in  grace,  the  purification  of  the  inner  life,  the  elevation  of 
the  soul,  the  gazing  upward  with  the  eye  of  faith,  these  are 
matters  for  each  individual  to  struggle  for  himself,  too  ten- 
der, too  holy,  for  the  rude  hand  of  any  outsider  to  seek  to 
direct  and  to  mold.  Webster  very  quaintly  but  very  cor- 
rectly puts  it  when  he  says:  "men  and  academies  have  un- 
dertaken to  teach  that  which  none  but  the  spirit  of  Christ 
is  the  true  doctor  of." 

He  almost  shrieks  out  with  pain  against  what  he  feels 
was  a  travesty  upon  the  best  part  of  life,  upon  the  religious 
nature  of  man  due  to  this  senseless  dip  into  metaphysics. 
He  shouts  that  "from  this  putrid  and  muddy  fountain  doth 
arise  all  those  hellish  and  dark  fogs  and  vapours  that  like 
locusts  crawling  from  this  bottomless  pit  have  over-spread 
the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  filling  men  with  pride,  inso- 
lency  and  self-confidence,  to  aver  and  maintain  that  none  are 
fit  to  speak,  and  preach  the  spiritual,  and  deep  things  of 
God,  but  such  as  are  indeed  with  Scholastick  and  man's  idol- 
made  learning,  and  so  become  fighters  against  God  and  his 
truth  and  prosecutors  of  all  those  that  speak  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  that  wisdom,  that  is  from  above,  and  is  pure  and 
peaceful""'' 

John  Webster  is  a  melancholy  example  of  a  man  crying 
in  the  wilderness  and  not  being  heard  by  his  fellows.  But 
little  heed  was  paid  to  his  warnings,  and  the  schools  con- 
tinued to  struggle  after  the  impossible.  What  a  mountain 
of  vain  effort,  what  a  weary  desert  of  sad  toil  might  the 
schools  have  been  saved  from  if  they  had  listened,  but  men's 
eyes  were  turned  in  this  direction  and  nothing  could  stay 
their  feet  except  the  hard  impassable  wall  standing  across 
their  path.  There  is  one  comforting  thought  however  that 
though  slower  and  more  stupid  than  dumb  cattle  humanity 

1TTJohn  Webster,  Examen  Acadcmiarum,  page  12. 


Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

does  in  the  end  learn  its  lesson.  Slowly  the  tired  gaze  was 
turned  in  another  direction  and  less  and  less  attention  paid 
to  theology  until  it  dropped  from  the  regular  college  course 
entirely.  No  longer  is  it  compulsory  in  any  of  the  700  in- 
stitutions of  higher  learning  in  this  country,  although  a  few 
do  provide  Biblical  study  as  an  elective.  This  does  not  mean 
to  say  though  that  the  subject  has  lost  its  interest  and  its 
power.  On  the  other  hand  it  has  gained.  No  longer  forced 
down  unwilling  throats  it  has  now  been  raised  to  the  dignity 
of  a  profession,  and  has  its  special  school  just  as  law  and 
medicine  in  which  those  who  are  going  to  devote  their  life 
to  it  may  receive  the  discipline  that  it  requires  in  addition  to 
the  regular  college  course. 

In  common  with  education  in  general  there  has  been  a 
great  enrichment  of  the  subjects  in  theological  schools.  All 
of  the  essentials  of  two  centuries  ago  have  been  retained,  to 
them  have  been  attached  developments  that  most  likely  not 
even  the  prejudiced  minds  at  that  time  dreamed  of.  Notably 
among  such  new  branches  are  the  courses  on  philosophy  of 
religions  and  comparative  religions.  The  historical  branches 
also  have  been1  very  much  increased  and  enlarged.  In  phil- 
lology  and  exegesis  there  has  been  a  most  marked  advance. 

LOGIC. 

"The  use  of  this  iron  key  is  to  open  the  rich  treasury  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,"  thus  imprinted  John  Eliot,  the  apostle 
to  the  Indians,  on  the  title  pages  of  his  Logic  Primer  in 
1672,  one  of  the  earliest  of  all  the  efforts  in  print  for  the 
salavation  of  the  red  men.  He  was  simply  in  line  with  the 
entire  trend  of  the  schools  for  the  centuries  past.  To  all 
educators  logic  was  the  handmaid  of  religion,  and  guide 
post  along  the  path  to  Paradise.  Instead  of  putting  his 
strength  upon  induction  and  deduction  and  upon  termin- 
ology, he  very  soon  began  to  discuss  such  matters  as  "Gen- 
tiles," "elect,"  "saving,"  and  other  phases  of  theology.  With 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  119 

her  elder  sister,  logic  and  theology  were  almost  the  only 
subjects  in  the  medieval  universities.  Every  student  had  to 
be  "aut  logicus  aut  nullus" — either  logician  or  nothing.178 
To  the  teacher  of  those  days,  in  the  sphere  of  the  intellect 
it  was  the  center  from  which  everything  radiated.  One  of 
the  authors  at  a  later  date  summed  up  his  entire  volume  in 
the  title  ''Logic  or  the  right  use  of  reason  in  the  inquiry  af- 
ter truth."179  To  the  Italian  humanist  it  was  the  "guide  and 
aid  to  the  study  of  other  sciences,"  it  assisted  to  "exposi- 
tion, precision,  connection,  and  clearness."180  Such  sway 
spread  far  and  long  survived,  even  the  master  pens  of  liter- 
ature yielding  allegiance.  Far  down  into  the  iQth  century 
that  queer  child  of  genius  and  opium,  DeQuincy,  could  see 
but  three  methods  of  training  a  young  man.  Logic  he  ranks 
first,  with  languages  and  the  arts  of  memory  following  but 
not  the  dimmest  gleam  of  any  science. 

But  these  earnest  educators  ought  not  to  be  judged  too 
harshly  in  their  emphasis  upon  this  branch  of  study.  Their 
premise  once  accepted  they  were  well  fortified  in  their  posi- 
tion. The  whole  of  pedagogics  at  the  time  and  for  hundreds 
of  years  before  was  based  upon  implicit  trust  in  authority. 
That  source  as  has  been  said  was  the  Bible.  The  problem 
then  was  very  simple.  Here  in  these  pages  is  the  totality  of 
intellectual  achievement  both  past  and  future,  it  is  only  nec- 
essary to  get  the  correct  meaning  by  analyzing  and  combin- 
ing the  notions  which  common  language  brings.181  These 
extravagant  estimates  upon  the  importance  of  logic  were 
perfectly  legitimate  deductions  and  her  omnipotence  re- 
mained and  had  to  remain  until  the  foundation  stones  were 
disturbed  and  men  accepted  additional  fountains  for  the  in- 
tellectual sources.  Throughout  these  years  a  synonym  was 

178  J.  B.  Mullinger,  Cambridge,  page  355. 

m  Isaac  Watts,  Fourth  English  Edition,  1731. 

M  W.  H.  Woodward's  Vittorino,  page  60. 

m  Whewell,  History  of  Inductive  Science,  Vol.  l,   page  230. 


I2O  Oui  Colonial  Curriculum. 

in  frequent  use,  dialectics,  as  though  one  word  was  not  suf- 
ficient for  the  majesty  of  this  monarch. 

ARISTOTLE. 

The  giant  of  the  European  intellect  reached  his  long 
strong  arm  of  mental  monopoly  into  every  indentation  of 
thought.  Either  directly  or  through  dilutions  and  distilla- 
tions he  ruled  in  every  school  and  class  room. 

He  had  epitomized  all  the  world  of  knowledge  in  his  day 
and  after  the  revival  of  classical  study  his  sway  was  pro- 
found and  overwhelming.  The  pious,  plodding  monk  who 
denied  sun  spots  because  he  could  not  find  any  reference  to 
them  in  Aristotle  is  a  ridiculous  but  true  instance  of  the  do- 
minion exercised  by  this  great  Grecian.  It  was  the  same 
homage  in  all  other  branches.  In  the  physical  sciences  in- 
stead of  observing  under  their  eyes  the  scholars  and  investi- 
gators pored  over  the  pages  of  Aristotle.  John  Baptist 
Porta  has  recorded  some  of  the  most  monstrous  and  absurd 
deductions  and  directions  for  scientific  experiments  to  be 
found  in  all  dignified  literature,  and  yet  to  him  nothing  was 
to  be  rejected  or  even  questioned  if  he  could  find  it  in  Aris- 
totle. 

BREAKING  THE  SPELL  OF  THE  STAGYRITE. 

Like  the  sudden  bursting  of  a  bomb-shell  on  a  quiet  day 
must  have  been  the  defiance  of  Peter  Ramus  as  he  stood  be- 
fore his  faculty  of  the  university  of  Paris  in  1563  declaring 
as  his  thesis  for  the  master's  degree  "Quaecumquae  ab  Ar- 
istotle dicta  essent  commenticia  esse" — whatever  was  said  by 
Aristotle  is  false.182  All  day  this  youthful  David  battled 
with  the  classical  Goliath,  finally  winning  his  honor  with 
applause.  A  rude  shock  it  was  to  the  smock  conservatism 
of  the  pedagogues  when  this  immature  champion  shattered 

"•J.  B.  Mullinger,  Cambridge,  Vol.  2,  page  404.  Also  Wadding- 
ton's  Ramus,  page  29. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  121 

the  infallibility  of  one  of  the  monarchs  of  the  mind.  The 
onset  was  too  sudden,  too  radical,  too  destructive.  The 
crust  was  broken  into  fragrants,  but  the  adherents  of  the 
Grecian  got  even  with  this  upstart  for  disturbing  their  ser- 
ene security.  They  did  not  attempt  to  match  intellectual 
weapons  with  him,  but  they  hushed  his  voice  by  physical  vio- 
lence. He  fell  victim  to  their  brutish  rage  in  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholemew  less  than  a  decade  afterwards. 

But  he  had  pierced  a  way  for  the  prisoners  of  authority 
to  escape.  He  was  a  John  the  Baptist  for  DesCartes  and 
Bacon.  Without  his  epochal  assault  they  could  hardly  have 
moved  forward. 

There  is  one  large  volume  including  virtually  all  of  what 
he  accomplished  in  pushing  forward  the  march  of  knowl- 
edge. Humanity  did  not  know  much  then,  it  was  no  great 
task  to  restate  all  that  was  to  be  found  in  books.  He  es- 
sayed this  and  gathered  data  under  such  heads  as  gram- 
maticae,  rhetoricae,  dialeticae,  physicae  and  meta-physicae 
and  mathematicae.  The  first  ranges  over  into  what  we  now 
know  as  phonetics,  and  is  a  rather  thorough  discussion  of 
the  deep  principles  of  speech.  There  is  considerable  philo- 
sophical speculation  of  no  great  value  scattered  through  it. 
The  name  of  his  antagonist  appears  on  nearly  every  page.183 

His  LOGIC. 

His  logic  only  is  of  interest  for  our  purpose.  A  small 
book  it  was,  duo  decimo,  really  might  be  called  "logic  made 
easy,"  an  eminently  popular  compendium.184  This  modest 
little  essay  was  a  kind  of  Martin  Luther  reformer  for  the 
province  of  scholarship  in  those  times.  But  it  is  a  curious 
instance  of  the  flightiness  of  even  grave  ponderous  school 
teachers  that  such  frightful  hubbub  should  be  aroused  over  a 

M  The  title  of  this  work  runs,  "Scholae  in  liberates  artes :   quarum 
eknchus  est  proxima  pagina.    MDLXXVIII  (1578)." 
184  J.  B.  Mullinger,  Cambridge,  Vol.  2,  page  406. 


122  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

slight  thing.  Men  in  the  heat  of  conflict  seem  incapable  ex- 
cept in  very  rare  instances,  of  judging  an  event  or  circum- 
stance in  its  true  relations.  It  is  only  after  the  fires  have 
smoldered  into  cold  ashes  when  the  historian  far  removed 
from  the  purposes  of  the  hour  comes  forward  with  his 
scales  and  his  microscope  and  carefully  weighs  the  residuum. 
When  the  event  has  lost  all  of  its  interest  for  the  great  mass 
of  us  then  the  student  of  the  past  went  over  it  and  compared 
the  two,  finding  that  there  was  no  great  difference  between 
them,  that  Ramus  was  really  only  a  popularizer  of  Aristotle. 
He  had  simplfied  the  original  and  had  done  a  good  work  to 
that  extent.  He  himself  thought  he  was  warring  upon  Ar- 
istotle instead  of  being  simply  a  convenient  edition  for  him. 
But  no  matter  what  modifications  he  made,  what  wrath 
he  called  forth,  what  blood  was  shed  in  the  strife,  his  logic 
and  his  fame  soon  went  to  the  limits  of  the  western  hemis- 
phere. Melanchthon  transported  his  teachings  to  Germany, 
Milton  got  out  his  version  of  the  book,  with  a  sketch  of 
Ramus  and  with  prolix  notes,  within  a  century  a  Harvard 
graduate  blessed  "the  incomparable  P.  Ramus,  "the  grand 
Mr.  Ramus  in  grammar,  rhetoric,  logic."185 

AN  ENGLISH  EDITION. 

About  a  half  century  after  his  death,  1626,  Antony  Wot- 
ton  put  Ramus  into  English  dress  as  "the  art  of  logick  gath- 
ered out  of  Aristotle,  and  set  in  due  form,  according  to  his 
instructions,  by  Peter  Ramus,  Professor  of  Philosophy  and 
Rhetorick  in  Paris  and  there  martyred  for  the  Gospell  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  with  a  short  exposition  of  the  Praecepts  by 
which  any  one  of  indifferent  capacity  may  with  a  little  pains 
attaine  to  some  competent  knowledge  and  use  of  that  noble 
and  necessary  science." 

The  whole  is  a  very  faithful  parallel  of  the  Latin,  which 

""Thus  wrote  Leonard  Hoar  to  his  nephew  Josiah  Flint,  then  a 
freshman  at  Harvard,  on  March  27,  1661. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  123 

begins  with  "Quid  fit  logica?  Logica  est  ars  bene  ratiocin- 
andi.  Eodemque  sensu  dialectica  saepe  dicta  est." — "What 
is  logic?  Logic  is  the  art  of  reasoning  well.  In  the  same 
sense  dialectics  is  frequently  used." 

The  entire  volume  is  as  formal  and  methodical  as  a  Puri- 
tan sermon  and  no  doubt  it  was  as  interesting  to  many  of 
his  hearers.    To  him  the  entire  subject  breaks  into  two  great 
heads,  invention  and  judgment.    The  following  taken  from 
his  book  without  the  awkwardness  of  so  many  quotation 
marks  will  serve  as  a  fair  sample  of  the  spirit  of  his  book. 
Invention  deals  with  the  finding  out  of  arguments,  show- 
ing us  the  places  where  we  are  to  fetch  the  proofs,  while 
judgment  is  a  part  of  logic  touching  the  disposing  of  argu- 
ments that  we  may  judge  well.    An  argument  is  that  which 
hath  a  fitness  to  argue  something.  One  of  the  important 
principles  in  logic  is  the  distinction  between  cause  and  ef- 
fect.   Cause  is  that  by  force  whereof  the  thing  is,  as  Mars 
and  Illia,  the  father  and  mother  of  Romulus,  were  efficient 
causes  of  him.    Effect  is  that  which  cometh  of  the  cause  as 
eloquent  orations  were  the  effect  of  Demosthenes  and  Tully. 
The  subject  is  that  to  which  something  is  adjoined,  the 
adjunct  is  that  to  which  something  is  subjected.  Now  having 
these  matters  settled  all  means  of  agreement  are  cause  or  ef- 
fect or  subject  or  adjunct. 

He  then  goes  into  quite  a  treatment  of  the  different  kinds 
of  arguments  as  opposites,  contraries,  adversatives,  contra- 
dictories, equals,  the  greater,  the  less,  the  unlike,  etc. 

In  the  second  book,  devoted  to  judgment  he  discusses 
axioms,  or  sentences,  defining  different  sorts  as  simple, 
compound,  general,  special,  then  he  gives  considerable  space 
to  the  syllogism  which  he  says  is  a  discourse  wherein  the 
question  is  so  disposed  with  the  argument  that  if  the  antece- 
dent be  granted  it  must  necessarily  be  concluded.  The  ele- 
ments of  this  instrument  of  logic  he  grasps  very  firmly  and 
explains  very  simply,  treating  of  the  major  and  minor  prem- 
ises and  the  conclusion. 


124  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

i 
OTHER  AUTHORS. 

It  is  a  long  line  of  ancestry  that  logic  can  claim.  The  great 
schoolmaster  of  Charlemagne,  Alcuin,  got  out  a  book  made 
up  of  questions  and  answers,  largely  abstracted  from  Isi- 
dore, who  in  turn  had  borrowed  from  Boethius  and  Augus- 
tine. Lombard's  ice-like  sentences  were  also  material  for 
the  chopping  machine  of  logic.  Melanchthon  really  dipped 
into  the  subject  in  his  works  on  rhetoric  and  ethics  besides 
his  larger  works  on  logic  proper. 

There  were  also  Keckerman  who  was  both  awfully  pro- 
lific and  dull,  Enfield,  who  really  wrote  very  sensibly  on  the 
history  of  philosophy ;  Heereboord,  Gassendi,  Wallis,  Brere- 
wood,  Ames  and  Watt.  There  are  two  others  of  more  spec- 
ial mention,  Brattle  and  Burgersdicius,  both  of  them  in 
rather  wide  use  among  our  colonial  ancestors.  They  are  a 
triplet  with  Ramus,  only  they  are  much  more  similar  than 
triplets  ordinarily  are.  Burgersdicius  was  honored  with  an 
editor,  Heereboord  who  smothered  his  subject  under  his  own 
verbiage  in  a  way  common  with  the  average  editor.  All 
three  have  substantially  the  same  arrangement,  following 
the  same  general  scheme,  treating  syllogisms  practically 
alike,  giving  examples  from  the  Latin  versification  of  "Bar- 
bara celarent,"  etc.  All  discuss  the  different  phases  of  the 
syllogism  and  all  wind  up  with  reflections  upon  method. 
Some  use  question  and  answer,  all  are  in  Latin  but  there  is 
an  English  translation  of  Ramus  and  perhaps  of  Brattle. 

AMERICAN  MANUSCRIPT  EDITIONS. 

Old  customs  like  old  people  usually  die  slowly.  For  ages, 
before  the  invention  of  printing,  textbooks  were  passed 
down  by  dictation.  Even  after  Gutenberg  had  placed  man- 
kind under  his  obligation  paper  was  still  dear.  Under  these 
two  influences  American  students  often  made  their  own 
books  as  the  words  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  teacher.  The 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  125 

zeal  of  antiquarians  has  unearthed  a  fair  number  of  these 
almost  entirely  in  New  England.  There  is  one  of  Brattle's 
Logic  by  Joseph  McKean  in  Harvard,  with  the  date  of  1765 
on  it  although  Brattle  had  come  from  the  printer's  hand 
seven  years  earlier. 

Still  earlier,  from  the  hands  of  a  graduate  of  1651,  there 
is  a  manuscript  in  the  keeping  of  the  New  England  Historic 
and  Genealogical  Society  in  Boston,  by  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  based  on  Ramus.  In  fact  he  copies  Ramus  almost 
literally  but  adds  comments  of  his  own.  He  must  have  been 
a  very  industrious  and  ambitious  pupil,  perhaps  not  more  so 
than  his  fellows,  but  at  any  rate  there  has  come  down  to  us 
in  his  Latin  a  resume  of  nearly  everything  given  at  college 
such  as  dialectics,  physics,  metaphysics,  with  a  specimen  of 
oratory  of  his  own. 

A  close  second  to  him  was  Abraham  Pierson  who  after- 
wards became  President  of  Yale,  and,  to  the  torture  of  inves- 
tigators, has  left  a  small  manuscript  volume  in  the  most 
cramped  hand  and  contracted  Latin  that  has  unfortunately 
survived  the  ravages  of  time.  He  and  Wigglesworth  evi- 
dently followed  practically  the  same  authorities  as  in  many 
places  they  do  not  differ  so  widely.  He  also  ranges  over 
the  entire  curriculum  including  logic. 

Education  for  ages  past  was  tested  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  course  by  a  thesis  to  be  maintained  by  the  candidate. 
The  same  idea  continues  today  in  the  essays  for  the  bach- 
elors, while  the  same  word  and  the  same  principle  are  act- 
ually to  be  seen  in  conferring  the  degree  of  doctor  of  phil- 
osophy. These  short  supreme  tests  then  are  an  index  to 
the  whole  course  of  study.  One  or  two  illustrations  of  the 
earliest  at  Harvard  will  indicate  some  of  the  conceptions  of 
logic.  For  instance: 

Universalia  non  sunt  extra  intellectum. 
Universals  are  not  above  the  intellect. 


126  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Dialectica  est  ominum  artium  generalissima. 
Logic  is  the  most  comprehensive  of  all  the  arts. 

Methodus  procedit  ab  universalibus  ad  singularia. 
Method  proceeds  from  generals  to  particulars 

BEXLUM  INTESTINUM  LOGICUM. 

This  is  the  sarcastic  summary  of  the  whole  study  of  logic 
in  the  schools  in  medieval  days,  by  that  frank  critic  John 
Webster,  the  Englishman,  "A  civil  war  of  words,  a  verbal 
contest,  a  combat  of  cunning  craftiness,  violence  and  alterca- 
tion *  *  *  trifling,  jeering  humming,  hissing,  brawling  and 
the  like  *  *  *  no  regard  had  to  the  truth,"  this  is  the  in- 
dictment that  he  brings  against  logic.  Even  more  satiric  is 
he  on  Aristotle  whom  he  contemptuously  dubbs  "the  secre- 
tary of  the  universe,"  and  "heathen"  who  "makes  God  an 
animal  in  his  metaphysics  and  chained  him  to  the  exterior 
superficies  of  the  highest  Heaven."  Rather  narrow  pre- 
judice on  the  part  of  Webster  to  attack  Aristotle  on  the  in- 
tellectual side  by  wielding  the  weapon  of  theological  passion 
but  very  likely  due  to  the  influence  of  Peter  Ramus.  There 
is  no  good  in  it  to  him,  only  "a  vaporous  and  airy  sound  of 
words,"  even  the  best  original  systems  leaving  the  intellect 
"nude  and  unsatisfied." 

Of  the  hundreds  that  acknowledged  Locke  as  a  master 
perhaps  not  one  would  recognize  Webster.  But  this  tower- 
ing philosopher,  and  this  harsh  judge  swallowed  up  in  the 
fogs  of  the  past,  have  the  same  estimate  of  the  value  of  the 
school  logic.  Locke  seemed  to  think  it  was  hardly  worth 
his  deliverances  as  he  gave  but  little  attention  to  it  seeing 
but  little  advantage  in  it  as  the  skill  of  reasoning  well  was 
not  to  be  acquired  by  the  study  of  rules,  and  reasoning 
was  founded  on  something  else  than  the  predicaments  and 
predicables,  and  men  do  not  learn  how  to  think  by  memor- 
izing a  system  of  figures  of  speech. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  127 

THE  DECAY  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

These  two  men,  the  prominent  and  the  insignificant,  were 
seers  of  the  future.  The  schools  did  not  regard  them  as  such, 
there  has  been  no  conscious  acknowledgement  of  their  pro- 
phetic insight,  but  logic  has  dwindled  almost  to  a  point  in 
the  required  curriculum  of  the  best  institutions  of  today.  A 
short  course  of  half  a  year  or  in  some  instances  even  less, 
a  little  handbook  of  a  couple  of  hundred  pages  and  the  stu- 
dent can  get  that  condition  checked  off  from  his  list.  So 
far  are  we  from  the  stern  demands  of  the  medieval  days 
that  everyone  must  be  a  logician  or  nothing,  that  many  now 
graduate  without  more  than  a  smattering  of  a  few  logical 
terms. 

ETHICS. 

With  an  enviroment  of  piety  for  the  schools,  an  atmos- 
phere of  theology  for  the  teachers,  with  a  saturation  of  every 
subject  by  religion,  it  was  not  necessary  for  much  strength 
to  be  devoted  to  formal  courses  in  moral  philosophy.  Its 
principles  were  inculcated  in  every  recitation  practically,  its 
very  soul  was  in  the  air  of  the  lecture  and  the  recitation 
room.  From  the  first  day  in  school  it  was  filtered  into  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  pupils.  The  Bible  was  to  be  read 
daily,  prayers  were  to  be  put  up,  the  catechism  was  rigor- 
ously taught  and  searching  interrogations  were  made  of  all 
on  the  preceding  Sunday's  sermon.  This  was  the  regular 
procedure  on  up  to  the  college  and  in  some  instances  even 
in  the  walls  of  this  higher  institution. 

But  in  the  higher  levels  of  the  educational  path  ethics  was 
dignified  as  a  regular  branch  of  instruction.  There  were 
textbooks  for  it  and  a  prescribed  stretch  was  to  be  covered. 
Though  coming  rather  late  in  our  period,  in  1765,  still  Pres- 
ident Thomas  Clap's  little  volume  is  fairly  typical  of  the 
spirit  of  this  pedagogical  division.  "Moral  virtue  in  a  con- 
formity to  the  moral  perfections  of  God  *  *  *  *  God  is  a 


128  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

being  infinite  and  absolutely  perfect."  So  there  in  a  seed  is 
a  whole  plant  of  moral  philosophy.  The  problem  was  sim- 
ple— just  analyze  perfection,  learn  its  attributes  and  culti- 
vate them  in  your  own  person.  The  whole  question  then  be- 
comes one  of  simple  deduction  and  division,  merely  an  ex- 
position of  what  qualities  are  wrapped  up  in  our  conception 
of  perfection. 

Of  course  different  men  would  follow  a  different  road 
and  reach  a  different  goal,  all  starting  out  with  this  as- 
sumption. In  the  main  President  Clap  confines  himself  to 
very  safe  generalizations,  all  impressive  and  almost  colorless, 
accepted  by  almost  anyone,  but  we  get  some  insight  into  his 
personality  by  his  discussion  of  lying.  He  tried  to  crack 
that  everlasting  nut  as  to  whether  it  is  ever  right  to  tell  a 
lie.  He  uses  a  very  pointed  illustration  of  a  man  fleeing 
from  a  madman  and  rushing  into  a  house  and  immediately 
afterwards  coming  out  by  another  exit.  I  tell  the  madman 
that  I  saw  his  victim  go  into  the  house  but  I  don't  tell  him 
that  the  poor  hunted  wretch  came  out  again.  The  madman 
rushes  in  and  while  searching  through  the  building  his  prey 
has  ample  time  to  escape.  Have  I  told  a  lie?  I  stuck  to 
the  facts  though  I  did  not  give  him  all  of  them.  The  mad- 
man made  a  mistake  in  his  inference. 

The  casuist  and  hair-splitter  might  be  inclined  to  raise 
some  doubts  about  the  quality  of  this  morality  by  taking 
the  argument  back  to  my  intent  when  I  spoke  to  the  lunatic, 
but  nothing  of  these  fine  distractions  does  President  Clap 
waste  his  time  upon.  He  cannot  for  one  instant  accept  any 
other  basis  than  the  one  he  lays  down  for  morality.  He 
rides  over  those  who  attempt  to  set  up  any  other  sanction  for 
conduct  as  happiness,  or  benevolence  or  reason,  or  moral 
fitness  for  things.  His  treatise  was  in  use  for  nearly  a 
third  of  a  century  at  Yale  although  for  a  time,  during  the 
Revolutionary  War,  work  was  largely  suspended  en  this 
subject. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  129 

OTHER  CHRISTIAN  MORALISTS. 

It  is  only  a  thin  volume  of  some  66  pages  that  he  uses 
for  the  development  of  his  ethical  views.  Not  much  college 
time  was  given  to  it  and  that  usually  in  the  latter  two  years 
of  the  course.  There  were  others  of  similar  character  that 
were  also  studied.  Wollebius  who  had  written  so  fully  on 
theology  also  provided  something  for  ethics.  Ames,  one 
of  the  theological  authors,  had  a  magazine  of  material  for 
ethics  in  his  "cases  of  conscience"  in  which  he  made  a  wide 
circuit  over  zeal,  faith,  sanctification,  fortitude,  temperance, 
marriage,  conscience,  death,  etc.,  each  one  being  ticketed 
with  a  text  from  the  Bible.  He  evidently  was  not  with  St. 
Paul  on  the  question  of  marriage  The  advanced  female 
thinkers  of  today  would  hardly  read  him  with  much  enjoy- 
ment as  he  unfalteringly  inculcated  the  subjection  of  wives 
to  their  husbands.  In  the  first  third  of  the  i/th  century 
it  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  scientific  dawn  had 
reached  him.  At  any  rate  he  seriously  doubted  some  of  the 
tendencies  of  science  holding  that  some  things  we  ought  not 
to  try  to  know  since  God  in  his  wisdom  has  not  revealed 
them  to  us,  and  there  is  nothing  left  us  to  do  but  acquiesce 
in  his  will.  All  of  them  are  formal  little  essays  not  made  up 
of  argument  but  of  rigid  statements  with  scripture  refer- 
ences. 

MORE'S  MANUAL. 

There  were  other  authors  of  a  different  shade  who,  with- 
out openly  admitting  it,  seemed  desirous  of  uniting  pagan 
principles  with  the  Biblical  teachings.  Aside  from  Locke  in 
use  at  Yale  for  a  short  time,  the  best  example  of  this  class 
was  Henry  More  who  put  forth  his  enchiridion  ethicum  in 
London  in  1679.  A  rather  stiff,  ponderous  edifice  of  Latin 
did  he  erect,  frequently  reaching  back  to  Aristotle  for  a 
stick  of  timber,  a  handful  of  mortar,  or  a  brick  or  two. 
9 


130  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

The  general  outlines  of  his  structure  and  the  framework  of 
it  are  very  like  that  old  Grecian's  product  but  the  Rev.  Mr. 
More  in  no  sense  intends  for  you  to  believe  that  he  has  sub- 
stituted this  "Heathen"  for  the  Bible.  He  lets  it  be  seen 
that  he  looks  upon  the  Hebrew  volume  as  the  essence  of  his 
book,  but  the  classical  reasoning  might  be  a  very  helpful 
supplementary  wing  to  the  divine  revelation. 

His  architectural  lines  mount  from  this  base  that  "ethica 
est  ars  bene  beateque  vivendi,"  or  ethics  is  the  art  of  living 
well  and  happily.  This  consummation  depends  first  upon 
knowing  what  happiness  is  and  second  knowing  how  to  ac- 
quire it.  Happiness  is  pleasure,  but  perfect  happiness  de- 
mands some  external  goods.  Happiness  depends  on  virtue 
which  is  a  quality  of  the  soul  enabling  it  to  dominate  brute 
instincts  and  bodily  desires  to  such  an  extent  as  to  attain  the 
best.  Of  these  passions  some  are  good  and  some  are  bad, 
but  a  long  list  of  them  does  he  glance  over,  such  as  hope 
fear,  love,  hatred,  anger,  cupidity,  audacity,  emulation, 
cowardice,  pusillanimity.  On  the  opposite  side  are  the  vir- 
tues which  he  also  ranges  over  such  as  prudence,  sincerity, 
patience,  affability,  hospitality,  gratitude,  candor,  etc.  About 
one-third  of  his  effort  was  devoted  to  the  means  of  acquiring 
happiness  after  knowing  what  it  was.  This  brings  him  to 
the  question  of  freedom  of  the  will  and  here  he  stands  very 
firmly  for  individual  right  of  choice. 

SOME  HARVARD  THESES. 

Though  we  jump  from  1776  to  1700  and  then  to  1642,  to 
the  first  year  of  the  oldest  college  in  America,  we  find  even 
at  this  educational  daybreak  in  our  land  that  the  ideas  of 
these  authors  were  all  being  laid  before  the  students.  In 
these  subjects  that  the  graduates  were  to  develop  in  public 
we  come  across  the  same  general  notion. 

Voluntas  est  formaliter  libera. 

The  will  is  properly  free. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  131 

Justitia  mater  omnium  virtutum. 
Justice  is  the  mother  of  all  the  virtues. 

Juveni  modestia  summum  ornamentum. 

The  highest  ornament  for  a  young  man  is  modesty. 

Honor  sequentem  fugit,  fugientem  sequitur. 

Honor  flees  from  the  pursuer,  it  follows  the  fleeing. 

Nulla  est  vera  amicitia  inter  improbos. 

There  is  no  true  friendship  between  the  wicked.186 

ARISTOTLE  THE  PEDAGOGICAL  FATHER  OF  ETHICS. 

As  material  for  mental  growth  among  the  young,  Aris- 
totle was  a  great  storehouse  for  the  medieval  miners  to  work 
in.  He  was  taken  up  and  outlined,  divided,  sub-divided 
down  to  a  sentence  or  even  a  phrase,  or  word  so  that  the 
very  last  dripping  of  meaning  could  be  extracted  from  a 
particular  point  and  then  the  same  process  could  be  ap- 
plied to  the  others.  For  some  of  the  humanists  Cicero  was 
preferred  to  the  Greeks  as  having  absorbed  their  results  and 
restated  them  in  a  clearer  manner.187  Like  a  vast  deal  of 
the  teaching  then  it  was  very  wooden-headed,  being  mostly 
memorizing  of  the  stoic  tenets.  It  was  largely  literary  and 
not  practical  but  that  was  a  defect  common  with  substan- 
tially all  education.  There  was  in  this  subject  the  same 
jangling  and  snarling  of  ideas  that  was  to  be  found  in  nearly 
everything  taught  in  the  schools  then.  There  were  censors 
also,  pretty  fairly  represented  by  Locke  and  Webster  here 
as  in  logic.  Locke  considered  the  Bible  sufficient  without 
any  of  this  repetitious  reproduction.  This  with  the  practice 
of  virtue  and  reflection  upon  Cicero  he  felt  to  be  sufficient. 
Webster  was  hand  in  hand  with  '•his  condemnation.  He  saw 

"*  Proceedings  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Vol.  4,  page  442,  1858. 
UT  W.  H.  Woodward's  Vittorino,  page  59. 


132  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

nothing  "practicable"  in  the  teaching,  it  accomplished 
nothing  except  to  make  the  subject  "facilely  disputable,  but 
difficulty  practicable."188 

Here  also  as  in  logic  there  has  been  a  wearing  away  of 
the  course  until  in  some  of  our  colleges  a  youth  may  win 
his  degree  without  having  opened  the  pages  of  a  textbook  in 
ethics.  Even  those  which  require  it  practically  have  only  a 
modicum.  Does  this  mean  less  faith  in  it  or  less  need  for 
it?  Is  it  no  longer  of  value  as  an  educational  performance  or 
has  the  standard  of  conduct  become  so  high  that  it  is  super- 
fluous to  teach  ethics  ?  Have  we  imbibed  these  principles  so 
that  they  are  a  part  of  our  everyday  living  and  consequently 
feel  it  a  waste  of  time  to  philosophize  upon  something  that 
is  with  us  in  every  action. 

PHILOSOPHY. 

If  possible  this  term  was  even  more  indefinite  in  medieval 
days  than  it  is  at  present.  To  some  it  meant  logic,  to  some 
it  meant  theology,  to  others  it  was  the  "mater  omnium 
artium,"  the  mother  of  all  the  arts,  or  the  "knowledge  of  all 
things  whether  divine  or  human,  their  laws  and  their 
causes."189  Again  it  was  sometimes  narrowed  to  the  history 
of  philosophy  or  to  metaphysical  speculations.  For  several 
centuries  the  whole  world  of  the  intellect  was  divided  into 
three  portions  as  natural  philosophy,  moral  philosophy,  and 
metaphysical  philosophy.  In  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
logic  and  metaphysics  were  yoked  as  "rational  and  instru- 
mental philosophy,"  the  first  furnishing  the  basis  of  investi- 
gation and  the  second  furnishing  the  appartus  for  carrying 
on  the  search.190  Lx>gic  thus  became  "the  art  of  arts,  the 
science  of  sciences,"191  really  the  basis  of  all  intellectual  de- 

188  John  Webster,  Examen  Academiarum,  page  87. 

189  W.  H.  Woodward's  Vittorino,  page  223. 

180  Grant,  University  of  Edinburgh,  Vol.  i,  page  273. 
191  Compayre's  Abelard,  page  180. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  133 

velopment  and  the  circumference  of  all  intellectual  achieve- 
ments. Occasionally  other  conceptions  were  added  and  we 
find  such  combinations  as  moral  and  political  philosophy, 
the  latter  subject  covering  in  a  general  way  the  whole  notion 
of  government,  especially  as  represented  in  the  Roman 
writers.192 

METAPHYSICS. 

With  a  constant  effort  to  unify  all  thought  it  was  inevita- 
ble that  the  thinkers  should  get  down  to  metaphysics,  or  the 
sub-stratum  on  which  all  of  the  world  might  be  considered 
as  resting.  The  constant  dialectical  disputations  assisted 
this  tendency,  especially  when  the  contestants  began  to  apply 
this  method  to  theology.  From  this  the  same  spirit  spread 
to  the  other  branches  until  the  most  material  subjects  of 
thought  interested  men's  minds  as  manifestation  of  an  under- 
lying substance.  One  of  the  best  illustrations  of  this  general 
drift  is  the  handbook  of  meaphysics  by  Henry  More,193 
which  he  calls  a  dissertation  on  incorporeal  things.  His 
pages  are  sprinkled  with  figures  and  diagrams  just  as  we  see 
in  a  modern  book  of  physics  to-day  dealing  with  such  mat- 
ters as  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  gravity,  magnetism, 
the  planets,  their  size,  their  distance,  the  nature  of  light  and 
colors,  plant  and  animal  life  and  similar  topics.  Still  the 
atmosphere  of  metaphysics  is  through  it  all  as  he  is  con- 
stantly trying  to  trace  these  down  to  their  origin  in  spirit. 
The  influence  of  Aristotle  is  clearly  apparent  as  More  lays 
the  foundation  for  Aristotle's  ten  categories  in  substance  or 
being,  seeking  to  go  down  to  the  very  root  of  all  matter.  A 
similar  author  to  More  also  used  in  American  colleges  is 
Heereboord  who  seeks  out  the  very  boundaries  of  all  knowl- 
edge.194 

"*  Grant,    University  of  Edinburgh,  Vol.    i,   274.     This-  was   the 
case  in  this  institution  in  1741. 
198  Enchiridion  Metaphysicum,  London,  1671. 
M  Meletcmata  Philosophica,  1665,  quarto. 


134  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

THE  RISE  OF  SCIENCE. 

In  these  metaphysical  conceptions  of  the  observational  and 
experimental  sciences  we  have  a  rather  solid  beginning  for 
the  later  work  in  these  fields.  But  this  general  theological 
robe  for  a  long  time  was  wrapped  around  the  apparatus  and 
laboratory  of  the  scientific  investigator.  Emancipation  came 
slowly.  While  still  fired  with  this  ambition  to  unify  all 
knowledge  many  attempts  are  to  be  found  at  combining  all 
thought  in  one  book.  Anthony  LeGrand  is  a  fair  example 
of  these  philosophizers.  His  "Entire  Body  of  Philoso- 
phy"195 contains  logic,  theology,  demonology,  physics,  spec- 
ulative and  natural  philosophy  of  the  world  and  heavens, 
the  four  great  bodies  of  the  earth,  water,  air,  fire,  living 
things  in  general,  man  physically  and  spirtually,  esthetics, 
natural  history  including  both  plants  and  animals/  and  a  dis- 
cussion as  to  whether  animals  have  souls. 

William  James  Gravesande,  coming  afterwards,  repre- 
sents a  slight  advance  as  he  entitles  one  of  his  works 
"Mathematical  elements  of  natural  philosophy."196  He  ac- 
knowledges his  debt  to  Sir  Isaac  Newton  and  along  the 
same  grooves  are  the  teachings  of  Martin,  who  was  used 
as  a  textbook  at  Yale  for  twenty-eight  years.197  His  phi- 
losophy springs  from  medieval  pietism  as  he  announces  it 
is  "greatly  subservient  to  revelation  especially  that  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  easily  accounts  for  or  removes  most 
of  the  difficulties  and  disputations  about  it."  Saturated  with 
this  religious  cordial  he  drifts  to  what  we  understand  as 
physics  to-day,  covering  such  matters  as  electricity,  the 
working  of  a  pump,  the  use  of  a  microscope  and  other 
topics  in  that  field. 

He  was  succeeded  at  Yale  by  Enfield  who  also  included  in 

""In  Latin,  1680;    English,  1694. 

"*  Latin   originally,   translated   into   English   and   published    1738, 
London. 
197  Stiles,  Diary,  Vol.  3,  page  312. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  135 

his  wide  grasp  the  history  of  philosophy.  This  is  really  a 
pretty  full  detailed  history  of  the  subject  by  a  man  of  some 
power  of  individual  thought  as  he  shows  rather  scant  respect 
for  some  of  the  vague  speculations  of  philosophers.  But 
when  he  comes  to  science  proper  in  his  "Institutions  of 
Natural  Philosophy"198  he  becomes  an  unfortunate  rever- 
sal to  the  age-long  credulity  of  his  predecessors.  He  sneers 
at  the  experimentalists  because  so  few  of  them  ever  become 
philosophers  and  it  is  these  gentlemen  alone  that  arrive  at 
general  truths.  Chemistry  for  him  has  no  attractions  as  not 
sufficient  data  had  been  gathered  for  him  to  digest  into  his 
system.  Naturally  he  is  deductive  almost  entireU  in  his  dis- 
cussions and  has  propositions  almost  as  formal  and  as  exact 
as  the  steps  of  a  proposition  in  geometry.  Starting  with 
the  nature  of  matter  he  ranges  over  all  of  the  present 
branches  of  physics  such  as  mechanics,  pneumatics,  optics, 
then  going  as  far  as  astronomy.  In  the  last  we  begin  to 
see  a  faint  ray  of  the  modern  scientific  spirit  on  the  subject 
of  comets.  Here  he  advances  no  theory  and  is  not  over- 
whelmed with  amazement  at  the  appearance  of  these  mys- 
terious bodies  in  the  heavens.  He  is  a  type  of  the  univer- 
sal genius  as  he  dipped  into  biography,  history,  elocution, 
hermeneutics,  and  also  preached  funeral  sermons. 

THE  SHAFTS  OF  A  CRITIC. 

Though  he  had  so  far  as  can  be  judged  now  but  little 
more  influence  upon  the  prevailing  conceptions  than  a  gentle 
whisper  has  against  an  enwrapping  fog  bank,  John  Webster 
let  fly  his  darts  at  these  formless  metaphysical  notions.  To 
him  they  were  "so  many  monstrous,  fruitless  and  vain  chim- 
eras *  *  *  fit  for  nothing  but  to  ensnare  and  entangle  *  * 
*  *  vain  dreams  filling  and  feeding  the  fancy  *  *  *  *  the 
assistance  of  its  twin  logic  (both  sisters  of  the  same  mother 
NOX)  *  *  *  *  poisonous  cockatrice  eggs  that  it  hath 

U8  An  edition  came  out  in  London  in  1785,  large  square  octavo. 


136  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

hatched,  *  *  *  *  as    little    purpose    as    the    disputes    DE 
LUNA  CAPRIMA,  or  moonshine  in  the  water."109 

RHETORIC. 

With  all  of  the  intellectual  energies  devoted  to  so  formal  a 
study  as  Latin  for  centuries,  with  minute  attention  paid  to 
every  turn  of  a  phrase  and  every  form  of  a  word,  with  the 
keenest  analysis  of  all  of  the  machinery  of  speech,  rhetoric 
was  a  necessary  development  and  the  great  Roman  orator 
and  stylist  was  the  original  exemplar.  It  was  to  Cicero 
then  to  Livy  and  to  other  Latin  authors,  then  past  these  to 
Aristotle,  that  the  school  masters  pointed  their  students  for 
the  best  specimens  of  prose  writings.  It  was,  instead  of 
being  merely  academic  as  with  us  at  present,  a  very  practical 
matter  to  the  medieval  student.  He  had  to  know  the  proper 
forms  for  drawing  up  legal  documents,  state  papers,  busi- 
ness communications,  items  of  affairs,  social  letters,  and  all 
other  means  of  expressing  ideas  upon  paper  in  an  authori- 
tative way.  To  be  a  secretary  fo  some  learned  man,  or  to 
carry  on  the  correspondence  of  some  baronial  lord,  or  to 
transmit  the  measures  of  the  church,  required  a  certain 
knowledge  of  the  proper  routine  channels  for  the  matters  to 
go  forward  in.  It  was  one  of  the  most  direct  and  useful  re- 
sults of  medieval  training  to  be  able  to  conduct  such  trans- 
actions in  the  usual  style. 

It  is  to  this  early  period  that  we  can  now  trace  all  of  the 
elements  of  the  ordinary  missives  that  pass  through  our 
mails.  Those  laborious  toilers  centuries  ago  had  hammered 
out  the  divisions  that  we  now  unconsciously  cast  our 
thoughts  into  whenever  we  wish  to  fold  our  ideas  into  a  neat 
package  enclosed  in  an  envelope  to-day,  such  as  salutatio, 
captatio,  benevolentia,  narratio,  petitio,  and  conclusio.200  It 
will  be  noted  that  this  roughly  corresponds  to  the  parts  that 

mjohn  Webster's  Examen  Academiarum,  page  84. 
200  S.  S.  Laurie,  Rise  of  Universities,  page  60. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  137 

textbooks  of  rhetoric  at  the  present  day  break  up  a  letter 
into,  namely,  heading,  salutation,  address,  body,  conclusion 
and  signature. 

Finally  all  of  these  different  items  as  they  had  been  pain- 
fully raked  together  through  the  preceding  ages  were  re- 
arranged and  beaten  down  into  simple  manuals  of  rhetoric 
containing  the  elements  very  largely  in  the  form  of  defini- 
tions. It  is  such  textbooks  as  these  that  we  find  in  the 
colonial  institutions.  Two  of  the  best  illustrations  are  Wil- 
liam Dugard  and  Thomas  Farnaby.  Both  of  these  were 
very  popular,  and  one  of  them  went  up  as  high  as  the  four- 
teenth edition  at  least.  Dugard's  was  only  a  primer  of  some 
thirty  or  forty  pages  duodecimo,  but  in  these  limits  he 
covered  elocutio  and  pronunciatio  so  as  to  give  some  direc- 
tions about  the  management  of  the  voice  and  of  the  limbs  in 
the  way  of  gestures,  all  in  the  approved  method  of  that  day 
by  question  and  answer.  He  had  all  of  the  figures  of  speech 
such  as  synecdoche,  metonymy,  simile,  metaphor  and  the 
other  less  common  ones.  Farnaby  covers  the  same  ground 
but  has  more  in  the  way  of  illustrations  and  examples,  ap- 
proaching more  nearly  to  the  rhetorics  that  were  in  such 
wide  use  half  a  century  ago.  In  fact  if  such  a  book  as 
Quackenbos  should  be  sweated  down  from  its  ordinary 
swollen  stage  until  only  the  thinly  clothed  skeleton  remains 
we  should  then  have  a  very  fair  picture  of  the  colonial 
rhetoric. 


CHAPTER  V. 
GEOGRAPHY,  HISTORY  AND  MODERN  LANGUAGES. 

Columbus  was  the  greatest  inspirer  for  the  study  of 
geography  that  the  western  world  has  ever  known.  Until  he 
made  his  momentous  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  men's  minds 
were  circumscribed  to  the  little  European  area  and  its 
shadowy  limits.  That  brief  outline  of  pedagogues,  the 
seven  arts  of  the  trivium  and  quadrivium,  hardly  provided 
for  geography  at  all  but  it  was  really  wrapped  up  in  mathe- 
matics. Capella  covered  the  field  in  the  sixth  book  of  his 
encyclopedia  which  was  almost  the  same  as  geometry,  deal- 
ing with  the  mathematical  features  of  the  earth.  Later  on 
there  were  compends  of  ancient  and  modern  geography  in 
use  at  some  of  the  universities,  notably,  Edinburgh.201 

The  impetus  from  the  nautical  pioneering  of  Columbus 
and  his  successors  echoes  in  Sebastian  Munster's  Cosmo- 
graphic,  a  type  of  simplicity,  childishness  and  pedanticism 
almost  universal  in  all  books  of  the  time  touching  upon 
nature.202  Besides  his  account  of  the  sailing  trips  of  Colum- 
bus and  Vespucius,  he  branches  out  rather  luxuriantly  on 
East  India  and  the  nearby  islands,  all  under  a  number  of 
small  heads  such  as 

Of  the  adamant  stone  otherwise  called  the  diamant. 

Of  the  cannabals  which  eat  men's  flesh. 

Of  the  Islands  of  Bornei. 

A  few  expressions  culled  from  his  description  of  the 
Island  of  Sumatra  will  give  far  better  than  any  other  way 
a  miniature  of  his  general  style.  Thus  he  goes:  "four 
kings  crowned  with  diamonds;  *  *  *  exceed  all  other 

201  Grant,  University  of  Edinburgh,  Vol.  i,  page  266. 
*a  Originally  in  Latin,  but  in  English  in  1553  in  London,  reprinted 
in  part  at  least  by  E.  Arber  in  1895. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.          139 

men  in  bigness  of  body  ;*  *  *  one  hundred  years  of  age ; 
*  *  *  inhabitants  are  great  fishers  on  the  sea ;  *  *  * 
whales  seem  like  unto  hills;  *  *  *  sometimes  swallow 
whole  ships  with  the  men."  Of  the  products  he  dilates 
widely  on  the  pepper  tree.  The  alligator  to  him  is  a  snake 
with  four  legs. 

But  it  is  when  he  goes  into  a  logical  explanation  of  some 
matter  that  he  exhibits  his  scholarship  and  his  weakness. 
He  wanted  to  settle  whether  people  lived  in  the  torrid  zone 
or  not.  He  falls  back  upon  the  ancients  first  raking  through 
the  list  of  them  including  Silvius,  Eratosthenes,  Polybius, 
Posidomius,  Homer,  Macrobius,  Albertus,  Ptolomeus,  Pliny, 
all  in  less  than  two  dozen  lines.  As  for  his  own  views  he  is 
as  illusive  as  a  doubtful  diplomatist,  admitting  and  qualify- 
ing and  bolstering  up  on  the  other  side  with  wonderful 
nimbleness — yes,  it  is  hot  there,  but  then  shade  is  thick 
there ;  "wilderness  and  desolate  places  there,"  but  also  much 
moisture  and  dew;  any  how  it  is  a  wide  space  there  and 
besides  Pliny  says  travellers  went  there  before  his  time  and 
that  there  were  cannibals  there.  And  that  is  about  as  near 
as  Munster  commits  himself  to  deciding  disputes. 

The  teacher  had  to  come  to  systematize  these  rubbish  piles 
of  knowledge.  Keckerman  one  of  the  great  arrangers  of 
the  time,  put  his  hand  to  the  difficulty.  He  turned  out  a 
wooden  headed  product,  tedious  and  formal,  mostly  defini- 
tions, all  in  a  series  of  statements,  usually  numbered,  with- 
out logical  connection  or  orderly  development,  in  Latin  of 
course.  But  a  translation  of  one  or  two  items  will  illustrate 
his  results — "a  river  is  either  steady  or  torrential,  a  river  is 
steady  which  glides  with  equal  flow."  His  first  half  is 
largely  of  this  sort  but  his  second  has  descriptions  of  differ- 
ent countries,  scarcely  more  than  their  boundaries  and  the 
nautral  features  of  land  and  water.  He  also  was  fascinated 
by  the  idea  of  the  tropics  but  he  took  the  ground  that 
whoever  lived  there  in  America  were  terrible  cannibals. 


140  .  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

LeGrand  is  another  sample  of  the  amusing  groping 
ignorance  with  regard  to  natural  phenomena.  He  wanted 
to  unlock  the  puzzle  of  no  rain  in  Egypt  and  he  did  so  by 
going  down  to  mother  earth  and  declaring  that  the  ground 
was  of  "such  close  and  compact  texture  as  not  to  have  pores 
large  enough  for  the  transmission  of  vapors."  We  get 
another  insight  into  his  mind  when  he  seeks  to  show  why 
rain  drops  are  round.  His  metaphysics  and  his  theology 
come  to  his  assistance  because,  he  says,  heavenly  globuli 
pound  on  these  drops  so  as  to  drive  all  the  parts  towards  the 
center,  while  the  globuli  within  are  always  butting  outwards 
and  thus  these  two  get  a  round  shape  to  the  drop.  The  air 
of  course  is  always  full  of  these  globuli  flying  about  in  all 
directions  and  they  are  less  liable  to  hit  spherical  bodies  than 
jagged  ones. 

NOT  MUCH  GEOGRAPHY  IN  AMERICAN  SCHOOLS. 

Though  the  innocent  cause  of  great  development  in  this 
branch,  America  could  not  spend  much  energy  upon  the 
study  of  it.  It  is  doubtful  whether  it  was  much  more  than 
a  pleasant  recreation  around  the  fire-side  at  home  for  the 
youth  of  the  land  until  they  reached  the  higher  grades  of  the 
common  school  or  entered  the  colleges.  Even  there  scant 
attention  was  its  portion.  The  Boston  preacher  who  re- 
vived such  pleasant  flavors  of  pre-Revolutionary  schools  and 
Noah  Webster  who  can  be  so  safely  accepted  both  were 
unable  to  remember  any  geography  in  their  youthful  school 
days.  So  it  was  in  Pennsylvania  according  to  the  educa- 
tional historian  of  that  state.203 

But  there  was  deep  interest  in  the  matter  among  some  at 
any  rate.  There  was  much  ingenuity  in  devising  orreries 
and  planetariums,  some  of  them  of  great  size  and  intricacy. 

308  Common  School  Journal,  Boston,  Mass.,Vol.  12,  page  312,  Oct. 
15,  1850.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  26,  page  195.  Wickersham,  Edu- 
cation in  Penn.,  page  201. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         141 

President  Clap  of  Yale  made  such  an  apparatus  for  his  insti- 
tution "to  represent  the  motions  of  all  of  the  celestial 
bodies."  According  to  the  specifications  of  it  it  seems  to 
have  had  a  globe  for  the  sun  in  the  center  and  wire  orbits 
around  that  with  balls  on  them  for  planets.  These  again 
were  encircled  with  small  globes  for  satellites.  There  were 
also  some  attachments  for  comets  and  eclipses  and  all  of 
this  mechanism  cost  less  than  twenty  shillings  or  five  dol- 
lars at  present.204 

While  the  branch  was  not  dignified  with  a  space  to  itself 
in  the  curriculum,  instruction  was  often  afforded  under 
mathematics  or  astronomy.  It  was  very  easy  to  connect 
with  either  one  of  these  subjects  by  starting  out  with  the 
earth  as  a  planet. 

Whether  for  this  reason  or  not  there  was  no  lack  of  text- 
books, which  are  to  be  found  preserved  in  American  libra- 
ries and  the  only  sensible  conclusion  is  that  there  must  have 
been  use  for  them  in  the  schools.  In  addition  some  are 
named  in  the  courses  of  study. 

One  of  the  earliest  was  Clark's  "New  Description  of  the 
World."205  This  is  not  at  all  a  poor  book  especially  for  the 
times,  composed  of  simple  descriptions  of  the  different  coun- 
tries, the  physical  features,  the  people  and  the  products.  He 
is  not  a  mere  lifeless  copyist  as  witness  one  quotation  on  the 
Indians  of  Florida:  "The  women  upon  the  death  of  their 
husbands  cut  their  hair  close  to  their  ears  and  not  marry 
again  until  it  has  grown  sufficiently  long  to  cover  their 
shoulders  (a  very  commendable  way  if  used  amongst  us  to 
prevent  our  over  hasty  widows  who  are  frequently  provided 
beforehand.)" 

Another  a  few  years  after  was  by  Hubner,  "New  and 
Easy  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Geography,"206  all  in 

**  American  Magazine,  Jan.,  1744,  page  202. 
108  London,  1712,  I2mo,  pages  220. 
"*  1742,  I2mo,  271  pages. 


142  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

question  and  answer  as  he  thinks  that  "the  most  excellent  as 
it  is  the  most  natural"  way.  As  a  consequence  of  following 
that  plan  he  shows  but  little  more  sequence  or  reason  than  a 
parrot  does  in  shouting  out  expressions  it  has  learned. 

GORDON'S  GEOGRAPHICAL  GRAMMAR. 

But  perhaps  the  one  most  widely  known  and  adopted 
throughout  our  colonies  was  "geography  anatomized  or  the 
geographical  grammar,  being  a  short  and  exact  analysis  of 
the  whole  body  of  modern  geography  after  a  new  and 
curious  method,"  by  Pat  Gordon,  M.  A.,  F.  R.  S.207  But 
this  is  not  one-tenth  of  what  Mr.  Gordon  crowded  in  his 
little  page.  Farther  on  he  unblushingly  introduces  his  vol- 
ume as  "a  compendium  of  the  true  fundamentals  of  geogra- 
phy digested  in  the  various  definitions,  problems,  theories, 
and  paradoxes;  with  a  transient  survey  of  the  surface  of 
the  earthly  ball  as  it  consists  of  land  and  water,"  and  still 
farther  he  assures  us  that  all  of  his  work  has  been  "collected 
from  the  best  authors  and  illustrated  with  divers  maps." 

The  whole  book  is  broken  into  five  parts  as  follows :  first 
all  those  terms  necessary  for  the  right  understanding  of  the 
globe;  second  all  those  pleasant  problems  performable  by 
the  artificial  globe;  third,  divers  plain  geographical 
theorems  deducible  from  those  problems;  fourth,  paradoxi- 
cal positions  in  matters  of  geography  or  a  few  infallible 
truths  in  masquerade  which  may  appear  to  some  as  the 
greatest  fables ;  fifth,  transient  survey  of  the  whole  surface 
of  the  terraqueous  globe. 

He  elaborates  each  one  of  these.  Among  his  terms  he  de- 
fines zones,  poles,  equator,  islands,  mountains,  etc.,  covering 
twelve  pages. 

Under  his  problems  he  has  such  as  "to  know  by  the  globe 
when  the  great  mogul  and  the  czar  of  Muscovia  sit  down  to 
dinner."  These  problems  run  up  to  forty-eight  in  all. 

**  London,  1730,  8vo,  pages  416,  I2th  edition. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         143 

His  forms  mount  to  forty-one  fairly  typified  by  such  as 
"to  all  places  lying  between  the  torrid  zone  the  sun  is  duly 
vertical  twice  a  year ;  to  those  under  the  tropics  once ;  but 
to  those  in  the  temperate  and  frigid  never."  Again  "in  all 
places  lying  under  the  same  semi-circle  of  the  meridian,  the 
hours  of  both  day  and  night  are  always  the  same  in  one 
as  in  the  other." 

He  tells  us  that  some  of  his  geographical  paradoxes  are 
amazing  and  we  can  readily  imagine  the  stupefaction  on  the 
faces  of  some  boys  when  they  met  this  example :  "there  is  a 
certain  place  of  the  earth,  at  which  if  two  men  should  chance 
to  meet,  one  would  stand  up  right  upon  the  soles  of  the 
other's  feet,  and  neither  of  them  should  feel  the  other's 
weight,  and  yet  they  both  should  retain  their  natural  pos- 
ture." Another,  "there  is  a  certain  place  in  the  Island  of 
Great  Britain  where  the  stars  are  always  visible  at  any  time 
of  the  day,  if  the  horizon  be  not  overcast  with  clouds."  He 
has  forty-five  of  these  gems  for  both  teacher  and  pupil  to 
try  their  wits  upon.  But  he  assures  us  that  though  they 
may  appear  as  fables  yet  there  is  no  demonstration  in 
Euclid  more  unfallibly  true  than  these  paradoxes. 

The  bulk  of  his  entire  book  is  given  up  to  descriptions  of 
the  different  countries  under  the  heads  of  situation,  name, 
air,  soil,  armies,  commodities,  rareties,  archbishoprics,  bish- 
oprics, religion,  universities,  manners,  language,  hygenic 
conditions,  but  his  most  characteristic  topics  are  manners 
and  rareties.  Under  manners  a  few  crumbs  will  give  some 
taste.  Of  the  Muscovites  (Russians)  he  says  "men  of  a 
vigorous  and  healthful  condition  *  *  *  a  rude  deceitful 
and  ignorant  sort  of  people  *  *  *  a  piacular  crime 
*  *  *  to  search  after  knowledge  *  *  *  brutish 
temper  and  stupidity." 

The  Dutch  are  "reckoned  none  of  the  politest  sort  of 
people  either  in  thought  or  behavior  *  *  *  singular 


144  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

neatness  of  their  houses  *  *  *  wonderful  genius  to  a 
laudable  industry." 

The  Japanese  are  "generally  of  a  tall  stature,  strong  con- 
stitution, and  fit  to  be  soldiers  *  *  *  naturally  ambi- 
tious, cruel  and  disdainful  to  all  strangers." 

It  might  be  remarked  here  that  although  written  nearly 
two  hundred  years  ago  he  managed  to  hit  off  some  of  the 
prevailing  traits  of  character  that  these  nations  have  shown 
since  then. 

Under  the  head  of  rareties  he  finds  in  Russia  a  strange 
"melon"  that  grows  a  skin  and  wool  just  like  a  lamb  so  that 
no  man  can  tell  the  difference  between  the  two.  New  Eng- 
land has  a  rare  Troculus  bird  with  "sharp  pointed  feathers 
in  his  wings  by  darting  which  into  the  wall  of  a  house  he 
sticks  fast  and  rests  securely"  but  so  grateful  is  he  to  the 
landlord  that  he  always  leaves  behind  in  his  nest  a  bird  as 
thanks  for  the  use  of  the  property. 

It  took  some  years  of  this  kind  of  geography  before 
America  developed  authors  of  her  own.  The  first  and  the 
most  famous  of  these  was  Jedediah  Morse  but  for  the  pur- 
pose of  this  study  he  is  hardly  available  as  his  book  did 
not  appear  until  after  the  Revolutionary  war.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  stimulated  to  do  this  as  a  correction  of  the  errors  in 
a  popular  book  by  Guthrie,  some  of  whose  editions  at  least 
appeared  in  London.  The  temperament  and  style  of  Guth- 
rie are  indicated  by  the  following  extract  on  Connecticut: 
"The  men,  in  general  throughout  the  province,  are  robust, 
stout  and  tall.  The  greatest  care  is  taken  of  the  limbs  and 
bodies  of  infants,  which  are  kept  straight  by  means  of  a 
board ;  a  practice  learnt  of  the*  Indian  women,  who  abhor 
all  crooked  people ;  so  that  deformity  is  here  a  rarity.  The 
women  are  fair,  handsome,  and  genteel,  and  modest  and  re- 
served in  their  manners  and  behavior.  They  are  not  per- 
mitted to  read  plays  nor  can  they  converse  about  whist, 
quadrilles  or  operas ;  but  it  is  said  that  they  will  talk  freely 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         145 

upon  the  subjects  of  history,  geography,  and  other  literary 
subjects."208 

HISTORY.  'fPw. 

In  the  first  course  of  study  that  we  have  or  Harvard,  there 
sits  history  serene  and  confident  as  any  of  her  sisters  in  the 
intellectual  galaxy  but  what  was  actually  included  in  this 
term,  or  what  was  done  in  the  class  rooms,  there  is  almost 
nothing  to  be  learned.  Negative  evidence  is  very  tricky  to 
trust  but  if  a  long  laborious  search  yields  no  results  we  are 
reasonably  justified  in  believing  that  there  was  very  little 
history  taught.  A  century  and  a  half  afterwards  we  have 
the  word  of  that  veteran  of  letters,  Noah  Webster,  that  in 
the  schools  so  far  as  he  knew  them  before  the  Revolution 
there  was  no  history.209 '  The  pioneer  prospector  along  this 
belt,  H.  B.  Adams,  who  was  also  one  of  the  first  to  intro- 
duce modern  methods  of  historical  study  into  America, 
found  also  no  pedagogical  nuggets  of  history  in  Harvard, 
and  consequently  throughout  the  colonial  period  as  he  found 
substantially  no  advance  of  this  subject  at  Harvard  for 
nearly  two  centuries  after  her  foundation.210 

But  our  ancestors  had  appreciation  of  this  muse.  We 
know  our  public  men  were  rather  diligent  courtiers.  Jef- 
ferson, Adams,  and  others  not  so  prominent,  showed  con- 
siderable acquaintance  with  certain  events  of  the  past. 
Adams  drew  from  this  arsenal  considerable  munitions  in  de- 
fense of  our  triple  division  of  government,  going  back  with 
sure  tread  to  Grecian  experiments  in  republican  government. 

There  were  instances  also  in  the  educational  profession. 
Fisher  is  a  specimen  of  ho4p  history  was  often  one  of  the 
ingredients  in  the  intellectual  hodge-podges  so  cherished 

**  Guthrie,  Geographical  Grammar,  London,  1792,  page  797. 
209  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  26,  page  195. 
810  History  in  American  Colleges  and  Universities,  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Education,  Circular  No.  2,  1887,  page  15. 


146  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

for  hundreds  of  years.  In  his  "Young  Man's  Best  Compan- 
ion" he  gives  up  twenty  pages  on  remarkable  events  and 
short  abstracts  of  the  past.  He  smelted  English  history 
down  to  a  few  words  for  each  reign,  dealing  out  such  tit- 
bits as  the  one  on  Edward  third  that  he  built  the  castle  of 
Windsor,  and  one  about  Mary  that  in  her  time  a  barrel  of 
beer  with  the  cask  included  cost  only  six  pence,  but  he  was 
not  altogether  wooden-headed,  he  had  some  spice  in  him, 
he  declared  that  the  people  of  England  during  the  Cromwell 
era  were  "stark  mad  with  bigotry  and  enthusiasm."211 

Infinitely  higher  and  more  helpful  to  the  real  cause  of 
history  were  the  histories  composed  by  such  men  as  Mather, 
Bradford  and  Hutchinson,  in  New  England,  and  Jones  and 
Stith  in  Virginia.  Professor  Hugh  Jones  down  in  William 
and  Mary  wrote  a  history  of  Virginia  by  1722,  the  pro- 
fessorial progenitor  of  the  theses  and  monographs  that  have 
burst  forth  with  such  prodigality  in  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century.  Within  a  score  or  so  of  years  he  was  followed  by 
Rev.  William  Stith,  perhaps  the  second  of  these  pioneers.212 

THE  LIGHT  FROM  EUROPE. 

There  was  the  weight  of  tradition,  the  endorsement  of  in- 
heritance, and  the  solemn  advice  of  the  seer  in  favor  of  this 
subject.  Textbooks  running  back  to  the  5th  century  were 
at  hand.  Orosius  at  that  time  had  condensed  the  annals  of 
the  universe  and  later  his  pages  became  the  school  history 
of  the  middle  ages.  The  humanists,  with  their  taste  for 
beauty  and  ease  naturally  preferred  those  authors  with  fa- 
cility of  style  who  could  inculcate  lessons  of  right  conduct 
especially  in  public  affairs.  They  went  back  to  classical 
days,  doubting  no  statement  provided  it  was  couched  in  elo- 
quent language  and  disdaining  such  vulgar  propinquity  as 
history  nearer  to  them  than  three  or  four  centuries. 

211  Page  329. 

a*  William  and  Mary  Quarterly,  Jan.,  1898,  page  179 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         147 

Locke  looked  upon  history  as  "the  great  mistress  of  pru- 
dence and  civil  knowledge,"  the  proper  study  for  "a  gentle- 
man or  a  man  of  business."  But  unless  the  pupil  learned 
something  from  it  of  value  in  molding  his  character  or  in 
shaping  his  deeds  he  had  far  better  put  his  thoughts  upon 
something  else.  A  mere  bundle  of  facts,  to  Locke,  was  just 
as  unprofitable  even  though  about  Caesar  or  Alexander  as 
so  many  baseless  statements  about  Robin  Hood,  or  the  seven 
wise  masters. 

But  words  of  wisdom  fell  on  heedless  ears  with  such  text- 
books as  were  provided,  even  though  a  lectureship  had  been 
established  in  Cambridge  as  early  as  1628,  with  the  stipula- 
tion that  the  incumbent  should  be  well  grounded  in  Latin 
and  Greek  and  should  have  neither  wife  nor  child.  There 
were  books  packed  with  figures,  tables,  and  genealogical 
trees,  looking  such  heaps  of  confusion  at  the  present  day 
as  brush  piles  in  a  new  ground  and  serving  about  the  same 
end,  only  incumbrances  to  be  burned  as  quickly  as  possible. 
Dry,  dogmatic,  uttterly  dull  and  uninteresting,  indigestible 
except  for  the  strongest  stomach,  even  if  there  had  been 
time  in  the  curriculum  for  this  study,  only  the  most  hardened 
antiquarian  could  feel  any  real  interest  in  the  matter.  It 
goes  almost  without  saying  that  they  were  all  steeped  in  the 
prevailing  theology,  tracing  all  the  past  back  to  "the  slime  of 
the  earth"  that  Adam  was  supposed  to  have  been  created 
of.213 

ENGUSH. 

Latin  was  an  imperious  beauty  that  strove  to  monopolize 
the  whole  stage  in  the  drama  of  learning.  She  was  not  en- 
tirely successful  but  she  did  crowd  her  English  sister  over 
into  the  obscure  corners  for  a  long  time.  There  were  gal- 
lant admirers  for  English  who  vainly  tried  to  stay  the  tide 
of  neglect  and  contempt.  Mulcaster  who  was  born  a  little 

113  Two  good  examples  are  J.  H.  Alsted,  Thesaurus  Chronologiae, 
1650;  and  Helvicus,  Chronology,  1687. 


148  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

more  than  a  third  of  a  century  after  Columbus  discovered 
the  new  world,  stood  up  manfully  for  his  mother  tongue. 
"But  why  not  everything  in  English,  a  tongue  in  itself  both 
deep  in  meaning  and  frank  in  utterance?  I  do  not  think 
that  any  language  whatsoever  is  better  able  to  express  all 
subjects  with  pith  and  plainness,"213 

Locke  was  still  warmer  in  his  praise  of  English,  still  more 
insistent  that  it  is  English  an  English  gentleman  should 
chiefly  cultivate  because  that  is  the  language  he  will  have 
constant  use  of.  Let  scholars  toil  over  Latin  and  Greek  and 
other  foreign  languages  but  a  child  should  be  taught  the 
speech  that  he  will  have  to  constantly  work  with  the  balance 
of  his  days.  Regretfully  he  found  this  branch  universally 
neglected  because  teachers  thought  it  below  their  dignity 
to  attend  to  the  every-day  expression  of  their  pupils.  Latin 
and  Greek  were  the  only  linguistic  forms  worthy  of  peda- 
gogical notice,  as  English  belonged  to  the  "illiterate  vulgar." 
Forestalling  the  future  by  some  two  cetnturies  this  bachelor, 
who  had  almost  never  known  a  mother's  tender  care,  who 
had  scarcely  any  playmates  in  his  youth,  almost  outlined  the 
present  course  in  English  that  has  been  so  developed  and 
emphasized  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  He  urged  the 
advantages  of  narratives  and  he  called  for  the  application 
of  the  precepts  of  rhetoric,  sorrowing  that  the  little  learners 
of  his  day  had  never  yet  learned  how  "to  express  themselves 
handsomely  with  their  tongues  or  pens  in  the  language  they 
are  to  always  use."  This  facility,  as  he  very  clearly  saw,  was 
to  be  acquired  "not  by  a  few  or  a  great  many  rules  given, 
but  by  exercise  and  application  according  to  good  rules,  or 
rather  patterns,  until  habits  are  got."215  After  amplifying 
the  importance  of  story  telling  for  giving  ease  of  style  he 
points  out  the  usefulness  of  letter  writing,  but  with  rare  good 
judgment  condemns  all  straining  after  effect,  limiting  the 

m  Mulcaster,  Educational  Writings,  Oliphant  edition,  page  189. 
218  R.  H.  Quick's  Locke,  page  163. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.          149 

whole  matter  to  the  purpose  of  expressing  "their  own  plain 
easy  sense." 

Strange  it  was  to  him  that  this  indubitable  duty  had  been 
overlooked  while  the  brain  was  racked  with  Latin  themes 
and  verses,  but  he  resignedly  remembers  that  "custom  has 
so  ordained  it  and  who  dares  disobey,"  besides  many  of  the 
teachers  were  unfit  for  the  task,  and  even  of  those  who  were 
of  sufficient  skill  their  efforts  would  all  be  nullified  by  the 
ignorance  of  the  parents  at  home. 

GRAMMARS. 

The  writer  and  the  thinker  were  not  alone  in  their  de- 
fense of  the  vernacular.  The  eloquence  of  the  pen  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  sage  were  reinforced  by  the  practiced  rules 
of  the  grammarian.  It  can  hardly  ever  be  known  whether 
J.  Wharton,  one  of  whose  books  is  now  in  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society,  having  been  printed  in  London  in  1655, 
was  ever  used  in  American  schools,  but  it  is  a  fair  presump- 
tion that  either  it  was  or  it  furnished  the  basis  for  subse- 
quent ones.  At  any  rate,  at  that  early  date,  so  impressed  was 
he  with  the  good  of  this  educational  subject  that  he  issued 
his  English  grammar  "containing  all  rules  and  directions 
necessary  to  be  known  for  the  judicious  reading,  right  speak- 
ing, and  writing  of  letters,  syllables  and  words  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue,  very  useful  for  scholars  before  their  entrance 
into  the  rudiments  of  the  Latin  tongue."  Manfully  does  he 
back  up  Locke  in  calling  for  the  exercise  of  good  English 
as  well  as  of  good  Latin,  as  it  is  capable  of  any  "scholar-like 
expressions."  But  the  mold  of  medievalism  is  still  upon  him 
as  he  sets  forth  his  efforts  to  aid  the  study  of  Latin  so  as 
to  assist  a  boy  in  turning  English  into  Latin.  His  109  pages 
are  largely  taken  up  with  rules  for  spelling  and  with  ex- 
plaining the  parts  of  speech,  but  he  avoids  that  grammatical 
'snare  of  the  subjunctive  mood.  Neither  does  he  have  syntax 
or  rules  of  parsing. 


150  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  later  a  more  ambitious 
attempt  is  put  in  type,  "a  grammar  of  the  English  tongue, 
with  the  arts  of  logic,  rhetoric,  poetry,  etc.,  also  useful  notes 
giving  the  grounds  and  reasons  of  grammar  in  general."216 
This  contains  the  elements  of  syntax  without  parsing,  with- 
out formal  rules,  really  an  essay  in  philology,  arguing  very 
stoutly  against  the  Latinizing  of  English  grammar. 

A  decade  later  there  comes  from  the  press  another  that 
was  thumbed  by  American  children,  Isaac  Watts's  third  edi- 
tion in  1776,  of  "the  art  of  reading  and  writing  English." 
Although  nearly  two  centuries  old  the  heart  of  the  teacher 
to-day  will  warm  towards  Watts  because  he  speaks  so  feel- 
ingly of  the  bad  spelling  in  his  day — "how  wretchedly  is  it 
practiced  by  a  great  part  of  the  unlearned  world."  We  are 
prepared  then  to  know  that  the  most  of  his  strength  was 
laid  upon  this  torture,  with  some  portion  to  reading,  which 
with  him  was  really  our  elocution  of  to-day. 

Of  the  same  horizontal  comprehensiveness  is  Benjamin 
Martin's  "introduction  to  the  English  language  and  learning 
in  three  parts."217  He  also  covers  logic,  which  he  divides 
into  the  old  four  classes  of  preception,  judgment,  reasoning, 
disposition.  With  this  as  the  center  he  radiates  over  all 
knowledge. 

Our  animosity  to  the  mother  country  had  not  yet  reached 
a  violent  stage  or  we  should  most  probably  have  objected  to 
the  word  British  as  a  part  of  the  title  of  "an  essay  in  four 
parts  towards  speaking  and  writing  the  English  language 
grammatically  and  inditing  elegantly."218  The  author  fol- 
lows the  prevailing  custom  for  school  books,  of  question  and 
answer,  giving  up  half  a  page  to  the  parsing  of  one  noun. 

All  of  these  yielded  very  submissively  in  popularity  to 
Lowth,  several  of  whose  editions  are  to  be  found  in  that 

a*  London,  1714,  I2mo,  264  pages. 
*"  London,  1776,  i8mo,  pages  228. 

**  London,  1768,  i2mo,  pages  155,  second  edition.  To  be  found  in 
the  J.  C.  Brown  library,  Providence,  R.  I. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         151 

treasure  house  for  pedagogical  history  in  Worcester,  Mass., 
one  as  late  as  1771  from  London.219 

In  spite  of  her  ardent  admirers  even  here  at  the  very  dawn 
of  the  upheaval  that  was  to  usher  in  the  nineteenth  century 
this  English  beauty  is  still  shrinking  and  trembling  in  the 
side  scenes.  Lowth  apologizes  for  writing  an  English  gram- 
mar, but  he  plucks  up  courage  when  he  thinks  that  "English 
hath  been  considerably  polished  and  refined,  its  bounds  have 
been  greatly  enlarged"  during  the  past  two  centuries  so  that 
it  deserves  some  treatment  in  book  form.  He  is  very  simple, 
free  from  philological  cob-webs  and  theories,  without  elab- 
orated reflections  and  intricate  tables,  having  none  of  the 
sixty  odd  rules  into  which  grammar  later  effloresced.  His 
specimens  of  parsing  at  the  end  differ  only  slightly  from 
similar  exercises  of  twenty  years  ago,  omitting  questions 
and  leaving  out  reasons.  All  in  all  not  a  bad  guide  along  this 
new  path. 

LITTLE  ATTENTION  IN  AMERICA. 

But  even  the  largest  of  these  grammars  was  only  a  short 
intellectual  meal  and  it  is  not  certain  that  many  schools  had 
even  this  morsel.  Just  before  the  Revolution  Lovell's  Latin 
school  in  Boston,  Mass.,  provided  for  English  composition 
in  the  translation  of  Caesar's  Commentaries.220  This  same 
witness  testifies  that  he  had  learned  some  grammar  in  Dil- 
worth's  spelling  book,  but  that  generally  in  the  secondary 
schools  there  was  no  formal  teaching  of  this  subject.  Later 
when  he  went  to  college  he  was  put  into  Lowth. 

Mason,  who  has  left  reminiscences  of  Yale,  though  in  the 
period  after  the  Revolution,  says  almost  no  pains  were  taken 
with  English  in  the  college  at  that  time.  He  himself  was 
quite  deficient  along  with  others  in  this  branch,  but  still  he 

218 12mo,  160  pages. 

**  Common  School  Journal,  Boston,  Mass.,  Vol.  12,  page  311,  Oct. 
IS,  1850. 


152  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

past  through  college  with  good  success,  being  among  the 
first  of  his  class.221 

Noah  Webster,  in  1840,  glancing  back  over  his  earlier 
days,  could  find  no  traces  of  English  grammar  in  the  schools 
before  the  Revolution.222 

Still  from  the  earliest  beginnings  some  clear  thinkers 
realized  the  educational  value  of  English.  It  was  studied  to 
some  extent  in  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School  of  New  Haven 
more  than  a  decade  before  1700,  because  it  was  then  that 
a  committee  of  the  trustees  reported  that  only  those  boys 
were  to  be  admitted  for  learning  English  books  who  could 
spell  and  had  begun  to  read.  Then  they  were  prepared  to 
"perfect  their  right  spelling  and  reading." 223  Down  in 
Virginia  was  the  same  solicitude  manifested.  Professor 
Hugh  Jones,  mathematics,  in  William  and  Mary,  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  followed  in  the  steps 
of  Montaigne  and  Milton  in  providing  the  best  training  for 
gentlemen.  He  prepared  short  treatises,  one  of  them  "a 
short  English  Grammar."  Unfortunately  so  far  as  can  be 
learned  no  copy  of  this  is  in  America,  though  the  British 
Museum  catalogues  one. 

As  one  of  the  first  in  America,  and  perhaps  the  rarest  now, 
some  bibliographical  details,  enough  to  show  the  spirit  of 
the  work  would  hardly  be  amiss  here,  especially  when  the 
settlement  of  the  locality  in  which  the  work  was  composed 
is  being  celebrated  so  fully.  Reliance  has  to  be  put  on  the 
great  English  library  in  London,  which  is  the  only  possessor 
of  a  copy  in  existence  so  far  as  this  investigation  has  gone. 
Most  trusted  hands  have  transmitted  the  following  descrip- 
tion 224  of  the  one  in  the  British  Museum,  in  addition  to  the 

221  Mason,  page  n. 

222  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  26,  page  195. 

228  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  4,  page  710. 
224  The  great  authorities  on  European  Americana,  B.   F.   Stevens 
&  Brown,  4  Trafalgar  Square,  London. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         153 

title  which  runs  thus  in  the  catalogue,  "An  Accidence  to 
the  English  Tongue" — 

Contents   of  the   Division   and   Use   of  English 
Grammar page     I 

Of  the  Characters  and  Sounds  of  English  Let- 
ters       "       2 

Of  the  Correction  of  our  Alphabet 3 

Of  the  Organs  of  Speech  and  Formation  and  Use 

of  Great  and  Small  Letters "       6 

Observations  upon  the  Vowels  and  Consonants  .  .  ib 

Of  the  Tangs,  Brogues  and  English  Tones  and 

Dialects  "     1 1 

Of  the  Methods  of  Learning  the  True  Sound  of 

English  Syllables  and  Spelling "     13 

Page  13  treats  of — 

"The  Northern  Dialect,  which  we  call  Yorkshire 
"The  Southern,  or  Sussex  Speech 
"The  Eastern,  or  Suffolk  Speech 
"The  Western  or  British  Language 
"The  Proper,  or  London  Language." 

The  book  consists  of  86  pages  in  all,  made  up  thus :  Half- 
title,  two  pages,  unnumbered ;  title,  two  pages,  unnumbered ; 
Dedication  (to  Her  Royal  Highness  Wilhelmina  Charlotte, 
Princess  of  Wales,  dated  at  end  April  22,  1724),  paged 
III-V;  Contents,  VI-IX;  page  X  unnumbered  and  blank; 
Text,  pages  i  to  69;  pages  70-72,  numbered,  contain  list  of 
books  printed  for  John  Clarke.  This  is  followed  by  a  blank 
leaf  unnumbered, — the  signatures  are  A  to  G,  6  in  sixes, 
with  a  blank  leaf  at  end  in  addition.  The  title  page  describes 
Hugh  Jones  as  "lately  mathematical  Professor  at  the  Col- 
lege of  William  and  Mary  at  Williamsburg  in  Virginia,  and 
Chaplain  to  the  Honorable  the  Assembly  of  that  Colony." 
It  was  "printed  for  John  Clarke  at  the  Bible,  under  the 
Royal  Exchange."  It  has  woodcut  initial  letters  at  chapter 


154  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

openings,  with  woodcut  ornaments  at  head  or  tail  pieces  at 
chapter  divisions.  The  British  Museum  copy  is  in  an  old 
red  morocco  binding  (contemporaneous)  gilt  tooled  border, 
with  central  gilt  ornaments. 

It  differs  considerably  in  philological  flavor  from  "Young 
Man's  Best  Friend,"  which  was  a  general  catch-all  of  all 
the  branches  of  education  and  learning  from  the  alphabet  to 
rules  of  health  for  both  young  men  and  young  women. 
Although  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  he  had 
to  pay  his  devotions  at  the  altar  of  Latin.  In  the  midst  of 
legal  and  business  forms  and  recipes  of  all  sorts  he  sand- 
wiches ancient  mythology. 

A  more  ambitious  aspiration  than  all  of  these  comes  to 
light  in  the  manuscript  materials  of  Harvard  University, 
just  four  years  after  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  authorities  ordered  the  establishment  of  "a  professor  of 
philology.225  This  advanced  idea  doubtless  never  got  beyond 
paper  as  the  massive  two  volumes  by  one  of  Harvard's 
presidents  give  no  treatment  of  the  instance. 

Indirectly  though,  especially  in  Harvard,  some  of  the  best 
English  teaching  war  carried  on  in  a  practical  way.  As  the 
dominion  of  Latin  was  gradually  narrowed,  declamations, 
and  orations  were  publicly  made  in  the  mother  tongue. 
There  were  also  dialogues  with  careful  translations  from 
Latin  sources.  The  college  authorities  yearned  for  "grace- 
ful elocution"  before  a  body  of  hearers  and  the  trustees 
would  appoint  committees  for  the  purpose  of  passing  upon 
these  exhibitions.  After  ten  years  of  such  insistence  it  was 
required  that  there  should  be  two  such  entertainments 
yearly,  covering  dialogues,  forensic  disputations  and  all  other 
exercises  that  would  stand  as  specimens  of  the  student's 
proficiency.226 

Of  the  history  of  English  literature,  of  its  master  pieces, 

**  Harvard  College  Papers,  Vol.  i,  No.  36. 

828  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  2,  page  124. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.         155 

such  as  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  there  is  no  hint.  There  is 
almost  as  little  odor  of  compositions.  The  memorizing  of 
rules  of  grammar,  lifeless  parsing,  with  a  mere  breath  of 
linguistics  proper  and  phonology,  about  contained  the  sum 
total  of  requirement  in  formal  English.  But  the  constant 
swapping  of  Latin  and  English  expressions  was  in  itself  a 
most  excellent  discipline  in  the  native  speech.  And  when 
we  add  the  set  addresses,  either  in  argument  or  from  the 
pulpit  or  platform,  we  have  the  rudiments  for  substantially 
all  improvement  in  daily  speech.  It  was  in  these  translations 
and  in  the  minute  pondering  of  the  massive  eloquence  of  the 
ancients  that  the  orators  of  the  first  period  of  American  his- 
tory got  their  strength  and  vigor,  their  deep  grasp  upon  the 
foundations  of  human  influence. 

FRENCH. 

For  school  purposes  the  foreign  modern  languages  hardly 
existed  up  to  a  century  ago.  If  a  man's  own  linguistic 
medium  was  beneath  his  notice  in  the  class  room,  still  more 
so  was  the  speech  of  those  with  whom  he  was  either  at  war 
or  at  enmity  for  generations  past.  The  merchant,  the  trav- 
eller or  the  servant  who  wished  to  accompany  his  master 
across  the  boundary,  might  tolerate  these  barbarous  jargons 
just  as  he  might  put  up  with  strange  cooking  and  outlandish 
customs,  all  for  his  own  benefit,  but  that  there  might  be  any- 
thing in  them  for  his  own  improvement  and  inward  devel- 
opment, why  only  the  most  enlightened  among  them  had 
reached  that  upper  level  of  appreciation  and  culture.  Still 
there  might  be  a  few  curious  souls,  or  what  is  much  more 
probable,  a  few  practical  persons,  who  might  either  wish  to 
wander  abroad  or  to  follow  up  an  investigation  in  another 
dialect,  and  for  these  the  study  of  French  was  permitted  at 
the  English  universities  as  far  back  as  the  thirteenth  century. 
John  Locke  pleaded  for  French  and  John  Webster  derided 
the  attainment  of  these  other  languages  as  useless  labor. 


156  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

His  discriminating  eye  could  see  nothing  in  the  procees 
except  the  possession  of  a  dozen  symbols  for  one  idea.  The 
whole  thing  to  him  was  an  intricate  labyrinth  wherein  a  boy 
"is  continually  royling  like  a  horse  in  a  mill  and  yet  makes 
no  great  progress."  22i  But  truly,  if  a  man  wanted  to  get 
the  marrow  of  one  of  these  other  literatures  or  if  he  wanted 
to  provide  himself  with  another  set  of  words  for  trade,  why 
then  it  would  be  well  to  learn  something  of  French.  The 
grammatical  method  though  was  a  "guilty  path  of  confusion 
and  perplexity." 

Like  a  spark  on  a  bare  plain  of  darkness  is  the  experiment 
with  a  French  tutor  at  Harvard  in  1735,  Langloissorie,  who 
held  a  very  subordinate  post  there  to  give  training  in  this 
Latin  off-shoot.  But  to  the  Puritan  he  was  a  Frenchman 
and  therefore  dangerous  to  piety  and  morality.  He  was 
charged  with  heretical  performance  in  his  classes  and  there 
was  much  disturbance  of  heart  among  the  faithful  peda- 
gogues lest  his  unorthodox  pronouncements  had  found 
lodgment  in  the  immature  minds.  He  was  investigated, 
cleared  of  the  charge,  but  it  was  felt  safest  that  he  be  re- 
moved. 

About  a  decade  previous,  Hollis,  who  was  such  a  warm 
friend  of  colonial  education,  had  gagged  at  the  idea  of 
French  books  in  the  college  library  although  he  thought  that 
such  ought  to  be  "esteemed  in  a  public  library"  as  so  many 
"very  valuable  books  in  history  and  philosophy  are  written  in 
French."  228  An  old  student  of  Harvard,  recalling  his  years 
there,  records  that  French  was  allowed  as  an  extra  at 
Harvard,  fees  being  charged  on  the  quarterly  bills  as  books 
were.229  It  is  farther  southward,  where  the  colleges  were  of 
slower  growth  for  various  reasons,  in  Virginia,  that  we  are 
to  place  the  honor  of  founding  the  first  chair  of  modern 

227  Webster,  Examen  Academiarum,  page  21. 

228  His  letter,  Harvard  Archives,  Hollis  papers  and  letters,  page  58, 
1718-74- 

229  J.  L.  Sibley,  letter  to  S.  A.  Eliot,  Dec.  21,  1849. 


Geography,  History  and  Modern  Language.          157 

languages  in  America.  Not  much  data  is  available,  really, 
this  fact  is  nearly  all  that  we  have,  except  the  additional  one 
of  the  name  of  the  first  occupant,  Charles  Bellini,  of  Italian 
extraction,  who  came  over  two  years  before  the  outbreak 
with  England,  at  the  very  end  of  the  period  intended  for 
this  investigation.230  Some  ten  or  twelve  years  later  there 
issued  from  the  press  in  Boston  a  French  grammar  by  John 
Mary,  an  instructor  at  Harvard.231  It  is  almost  like  looking 
at  the  portraits  of  the  ancestors  to  the  third  or  fourth  gen- 
eration of  persons  to-day  and  pointing  out  the  great  resemb- 
lance that  has  been  handed  down  through  these  successive 
steps.  Not  so  exact  in  details  and  not  so  amplified  in  illustra- 
tions as  French  school  grammars  to-day,  but  in  the  body  of 
principles  and  in  the  general  treatment  substantially  the 
same. 

As  compared  with  what  is  done  in  this  tongue  in  our 
schools  to-day  and  as  compared  with  what  was  done  in 
Latin  in  medieval  days,  the  course  in  French  almost  van- 
ishes to  a  speck,  so  little  was  there  done  in  it. 

180  William  and  Mary  Quarterly,  Jan.,  1898,  page  181. 
*"  1784,  141  pages. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MATHEMATICS. 

As  with  a  child  so  with  a  race,  the  mental  qualities  of 
memory  and  imitativeness  are  the  first  to  be  developed. 
Speech,  words  and  phrases  are  the  earliest  acquisitions  of 
the  individual  and  of  the  entire  group  of  human  beings. 
Latin  absorbed  all  energies,  filled  all  moments,  supplied  all 
intellectual  food.  Science  of  numbers,  except  in  the  rudi- 
ments, was  of  very  slow  development.  For  practical  pur- 
poses the  digits  had  to  be  evolved,  counting  was  a  necessity. 
Next  to  these  were  the  demands  of  religion  for  keeping 
track  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  epochs.  For  centuries  the 
chief  incentive  for  studying  mathematics  was  the  desire  to 
calculate  the  time  of  Easter  and  the  festival  days. 

The  two  great  school  authorities  of  the  middle  ages,  Cas- 
siodorus  and  Capella,  had  but  little  more  of  mathematics 
than  a  few  definitions  mingled  with  superstitious  absurdi- 
ties about  virtues  of  certain  numbers  and  figures,  Cassio- 
dorus  occupying  only  a  few  pages.232  The  universities  of 
the  time  had  only  a  mere  smattering  of  the  subject.  Oxford 
up  to  1300  covered  only  a  little  of  Euclid.  The  Italian 
humanists  regarded  a  man  who  knew  Euclid  as  a  prodigy 
of  the  intellect.  The  universities  in  that  peninsula  in  some 
cases  had  geometry  as  an  extra,  for  which  special  fees  were 
charged.  Roger  Bacon,  who  spanned  a  large  portion  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  complained  that  very  few  went  be- 
yond the  fifth  proposition  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid.  For 
long  periods  after  him  the  six  books  were  considered  a 
stupendous  mountain  for  one  to  climb.  But  there  was 
progress,  slow,  and  painful,  and  almost  wholly  along  the 
lines  for  usefulness  in  daily  life.  By  1750  Edinburgh  Uni- 

^Hallam,  Literature  of  Europe,  Chap,  i,  Paris  edition,  1837. 


Mathematics.  159 

versity  offered  trigonometry,  logarithms,  surveying,  fortifi- 
cations, dialling,  conic-sections,  theory  of  gunnery,  with 
astronomy  and  some  allied  physical  branches. 

ARITHMETIC. 

The  eldest  of  the  mathematical  family,  because  the  most 
practical,  a  trait  of  character  imparted  to  it  by  the  Egyptians, 
is  arithmetic.  The  second  most  distinguishing  feature  of  it 
was  its  fondness  for  formal  rules  and  its  contempt  for 
reason,  as  it  was  ordinarily  presented  in  the  schools  for  a 
long  time. 

Its  early  range  was  very  limited,  scarcely  extending 
farther  than  nursery  puzzles  of  the  present  day.  Alcuin. 
the  great  educator  for  Charles  the  Great,  contains  problems 
designed  to  excite  the  curiosity  and  to  whet  the  wits  and  to 
furnish  amusement  for  the  boys  of  his  day.  How,  he  asks, 
can  you  kill  three  hundred  pigs  on  three  days,  killing  an  odd 
number  each  time?  After  allowing  his  hearers  to  sharpen 
their  teeth  on  this  nut  for  a  time,  he  naively  informs  them 
that  it  cannot  be  done.  Many  of  his  other  examples  are 
like  that  one,  familiar  to  all  small  children  among  us,  such 
as  two  geese  before  two  geese,  two  geese  behind  two  geese, 
and  two  geese  between  two  geese,  how  many  are  there  in  all  ? 

But  for  our  colonial  ancestry,  an  indefatigable  investigator 
ranks  the  Hornbook  as  our  earliest  arithmetical  primer  since 
it  had  Roman  numerals.233  To  go  beyond  this,  generally, 
each  child  had  to  make  his  own  manuscript  book  from  the 
dictation  of  the  teacher  as  printed  books  were  a  great  rarity 
among  us  up  to  the  eighteenth  century.  Trade  and  the 
counting  room  set  the  pace.  Arithmetic  was  only  a  means 
of  getting  along  in  the  world,  of  bartering  and  dealing  with 
your  fellowmen,  of  maTcing  money,  but  it  was  without  edu- 
cational value.  In  the  arrangement  of  subjects  for  the 
common  schools  the  words  usually  ran  "writing  and  arith- 

133  F.  Cajori,  Teach,  and  Hist,  of  Mathematics,  page  n. 


160  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

metic."    The  great  light  among  arithmetical  authors,  Cocker, 
wrote  more  books  on  calligraphy  than  on  numbers. 

The  facilities  were  very  scanty,  no  blackboards,  no  slates ; 
instead  cheap  paper,  often  only  the  margins,  blank  leaves  of 
day  books,  backs  of  letters,  even  birch  bark,  with  ink  made 
from  the  maple  tree  and  copperas,  were  forced  into  duty. 
A  little  mastery  of  figures  was  sufficient  for  the  pedagogue. 
If  he  could  enumerate  the  minutes  in  a  year  or  the  inches 
in  a  mile  he  was  competent  to  instruct  in  this  branch.  He 
was  hardly  expected  to  tackle  anything  but  integral  num- 
bers, but  if  he  could  handle  fractions  and  make  excursions 
into  the  rule  of  three  he  was  a  marvel.  Only  admitted 
geniuses  got  beyond  these.  Often  in  the  boys'  school  the 
whole  thing  was  shunted  off  to  the  evening,  while  spelling, 
reading,  and  writing  proudly  occupied  the  day.  The  method 
was  simple  and  it  has  not  died  out  yet.  It  is  still  to  be  found 
on  the  frontiers  and  it  was  common  three  or  four  decades 
ago  in  those  sections  that  were  educationally  backward.  The 
teacher  curtly  gave  out  "sums"  and  each  pupil  strained  his 
very  vitals  to  solve  them.  If  he  got  the  correct  answer, 
which  his  master  decided  by  looking  at  a  "key,"  he  was  given 
another  or  pased  on  to  some  other  subject.  We  can  almost 
hear  now  the  childish  voices  piping  around  the  teacher's 
desk,  six,  eight,  ten,  or  fifteen  of  them  as  the  boys  group 
around  calling  out  the  answer  that  each  had  found.  An 
eagerness,  a  feverishness  with  each  to  get  his  work  passed 
upon,  the  whole  mass  of  voices  punctured  and  streaked  at 
times  with  a  querulous  complaint  of  the  unlucky  stupid 
ones  that  they  could  not  see  through  the  matter  at  all.  They 
were  even  more  insistent  than  their  fellows  for  fear  they 
might  be  sent  back  to  their  seats  forbidden  again  to  seek 
the  shade  of  the  trees  outside,  in  summer,  or  the  sunny  side 
of  the  rough  cabin  in  winter,  to  go  over  the  painful  path 
again.  It  was  in  fact  almost  a  passion  in  some  schools. 
Nearly  every  other  branch  was  excluded.  "To  understand 


Mathematics.  161 

figures  well,  we  reckoned  the  height  of  learning,"  so  runs 
the  testimony  of  a  Virginia  preacher  only  a  score  or  so  of 
years  before  the  Revolution.23* 

If  it  was  such  a  mighty  strain  for  the  boys  it  was  only 
natural  that  the  girls  were  saved  from  such  efforts.  The 
road  was  too  rocky,  the  heights  too  inaccessible  for  feminine 
feet  and  hence  while  the  boys  were  taught  reading,  writing 
and  arithmetic  the  girls  had  reading,  writing  and  sewing. 
To  the  colonial  men  it  was  much  easier  to  thread  a  needle 
and  to  sew  a  seam  than  to  "do  sums" — and  also  required  far 
less  mental  ability.  There  were  few  women  teachers  in  those 
days,  but  what  there  were  were  gallantly  excused  from  im- 
parting arithmetic.  The  average  colonial  would  as  soon 
have  expected  a  woman  "to  teach  the  Arabic  language  as 
the  numerical  science."286 

CHIEF  TEXT-BOOKS. 

We  can  learn  the  subjects  in  these  early  schools,  we  can 
get  the  remininiscences  of  some  of  the  students  in  their  after 
life,  often  in  old  age,  we  can  draw  upon  our  imaginations 
to  revive  scenes  for  us,  but  there  was  no  phonograph  in 
those  days,  nor  was  there  the  realistic  newspaper  reporter 
sitting  in  a  corner  to  jot  down  what  occurred.  A  text-book 
is  not  the  ideal  mirror  for  reflecting  the  actual  education. 
Even  now  the  difference  between  the  book  and  the  instruc- 
tion in  the  class  rooms  is  often  a  mighty  gorge.  But  in  the 
absence  of  the  other  infallible  data,  which  we  can  never  get, 
the  text-book  is  one  of  our  safest  guides  in  reviewing 
the  past. 

Happily  there  were  not  many  of  these  and  specimens  of 
each  still  survive.  Only  six  of  those  in  common  use  in 
elementary  schools  did  those  earnest  pioneers,  Cajori  and 

**  D.  Jarratt,  page  24,  of  his  life. 
*"W.  Burton,  page  152,  District  Schools. 
ii 


1 62  Our  Colonial  Curriculum 

Wickersham  find.     They  are  worthy  of  rather  full  picture 
of  their  title  pages  with  some  other  facts  as  follows : 

1  A  primer  or  spelling  book  containing  "Roman  numerals, 
lessons  in  the  fundamental  rules  of  arithmetic 

and  weights  and  measures,  a  perpetual  almanac" 
(Wickersham,  194)  by  George  Fox,  founder  of  Soci- 
ety of  Friends,  published  in  1674  in  England, 
republished  at  Philadelphia,  1701,  at  Boston, 
1743,  and  Newport,  1769:    Not  much  used  outside  of 
Friends.     (In  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society). 

2  "The  American  Instructor,  or  Young 
man's  Best  Companion,  containing  spelling, 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  in  an  easier 
way  than  any  yet  published  and  how  to  qual- 
ify any  person  for  business  without  the 

help  of  a  master,"  by  George  Fisher, 
printed  in  Philadelphia,  1748,  by  Franklin  and 
Hall,  also  had  bookkeeping:    rules  for 
mechanical  calculations,  gauging,  dial- 
ling, and  many  recipes  and  directions 
for  various  things. 

3  James  Hodder — "Hodder's  arithmetick,  or 
that  necessary  art  made  most  easy,"  in 
London,  1661,  American  edition  from  25th 
English  in  Boston,  1719. 

4  Coffer  Konst,  by  Pieter  Venema,  Dutch 
Teacher  who  died  about  1612.    English 
translation  in  New  York  in  1730 — 
apparently  second  oldest  arithmetic 
printed  in  America. 


Mathematics.  163 

5  Cocker's  Arithmetic,  really  published 

by  John  Hawkins,  and  hence  may  be  under 
his  name:   after  death  of  Cocker,  in 
1667  in  England,  American  edition  in 
1799  in  Philadelphia. 

6  Thomas  Dilworth — Schoolmaster's 
Assistant — first  in  London  1744 
or  1745,  reprinted  in  Philadelphia 
in  1769;  then  others. 

It  will  help  us  to  get  acquainted  with  these  by  knowing 
some  of  their  predecessors.  One  of  the  most  prominent  was 
Record's  "Arithmetic  or  the  crown  of  arts."  23<J  It  is  a  very 
distressing  book  to  look  into  as  it  is  in  that  old  style  black 
letter,  all  of  it  in  question  and  answer.  He  is  tainted  with 
the  prevailing  commercial  conception  of  the  subject,  devoting 
ten  pages  to  expounding  "profit  of  arithmetic"  in  the  form 
of  a  dialogue  between  the  master  and  the  pupil,  in  which 
the  latter,  poor  wretch,  gets  decidedly  the  worst  of  it  when 
he  is  unable  to  follow  the  ponderous  reasoning  of  the  peda- 
gogue. Like  a  medievalist  he  dotes  on  tables  and  forms, 
covering  his  pages  with  such  complications,  preceding  some 
of  them  with  the  proud  announcement  "lo!  this  is  the 
table."  He  had  the  honor  of  being  edited  too  as  before  the 
end  of  the  century,  Edward  Hatton,  "philomercat,"  based 
his  work  on  Record,  assuring  us  that  it  is  an  improvement, 
with  a  new  method,  and  better  tables.  Both  have  Latin 
sprinkled  along  the  way. 

Though  not  first  in  the  above  list,  Cocker  belongs  in  that 
grade  chronologically.  His  first  edition,  in  1677,  appeared 
after  his  death,  and  is  considered  by  some  to  have  been  a 
forgery,  but  perhaps  based  upon  a  manuscript  left  by 
Cocker.  To  him  belongs  the  high  distinction  of  excluding 

**  London,  1654,  i8mo,  629  pages,  copy  in  the  R.  I.  Hist.  Society. 


164  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

all  demonstrations  and  reasonings  while  confining  himself 
to  commercial  questions  only.  He  relied  entirely  upon  rules 
without  giving  any  reason  or  basis  for  them  so  that  it  be- 
came almost  a  proverb  to  settle  questions  by  saying  "accord- 
ing to  Cocker,"  a  maxim  that  almost  operated  as  a  curse  to 
real  learning.  It  was  the  great  archetype  for  the  brood  of 
arithmetics  that  followed.  It  went  itself  as  high  as  fifty 
editions  before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  A 
Philadelphia  worshiper  even  called  in  poetry  to  represent  his 
devotion.  In  the  edition  of  that  city  in  1779  there  is  a  rude 
portrait  of  Cocker  and  these  lines: 

"Ingenious  Cocker,  now  to  Rest  thou'rt  gone 
"No  art  can  show  thee  fully  but  thine  own ; 
"Thy  rare  Arithmetick  alone  can  show 
"Th'  vast  Thanks  we  for  thy  labours  owe." 

In  the  spirit  of  these  descriptions  we  find  his  chief  con- 
tribution to  education.  He  was  through  and  through  a 
practical  man,  covering  the  usual  subjects  in  the  arithmetic 
of  the  times,  the  four  fundamental  divisions,  fractions,  rule 
of  three,  etc. 

Of  George  Fox's  Primer  and  of  Venema's  Coffer  Konst 
there  is  not  much  to  be  said  as  both  were  of  limited  use,  the 
first,  as  already  noted,  chiefly  by  the  Quakers,  and  the  sec- 
and,  as  might  be  inferred  from  the  name,  almost  wholly  by 
the  Dutch  element  in  New  York.  Very  few  copies  of  either 
are  known  to  be  in  existence,  the  largest  book  repository  in 
the  United  States  and  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world,  the 
Congressional  Library  in  Washington,  being  unable  to  offer 
either. 

The  young  men  of  his  day  must  have  been  very  dull,  or  at 
least  George  Fisher  must  have  thought  them  so  when  he 
got  out  his  "Young  Man's  Best  Companion,"  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  places  he  omitted  rules, 
but  he  gave  the  entire  operation  with  all  the  painful  particu- 


Mathematics.  165 

larity  of  a  Japanese  teacher  of  the  solemn  tea  ceremonial, 
with  no  more  reasoning  than  a  phonograph  would  grind  out. 
He  had  promised  to  make  the  thing  easy  and  intelligent  to 
the  meanest  capacity  and  he  largely  kept  his  word.  That 
jagged  mountain  of  difficulty,  the  rule  of  three,  he  very 
suavely  gilded  as  the  "golden  rule."  As  indicated  above, 
he  attempted  to  be  encyclopedic  for  virtually  all  kinds  of 
practical  knowledge,  meeting  with  a  success  in  this  road 
travelled  by  so  many  in  his  day.237 

The  remaining  two,  Hodder  and  Dilworth,  of  the  above 
half  dozen,  are  here  placed  last,  not  because  of  their  later 
appearance  in  literature,  but  because  of  their  wider  use  in 
the  colonies.  Hodder  must  originally  have  been  frightfully 
full  of  mistakes,  as  William  Hume,  who  got  out  a  twenty- 
seventh  edition  of  him  in  London,  1739,  boasts  that  Hodder 
has  been  "augmented  and  above  a  thousand  faults  amended." 
Even  with  all  of  these  improvements  the  book  is  very  de- 
fective from  the  standpoint  of  logic  and  reason.  There  is 
one  good  feature.  The  tedious  dialogue  method  had  been 
dropped.238 

THE  MOST  POPULAR  ARITHMETIC. 

But  Dilworth  was  the  most  popular  of  all  these  mathe- 
matical efforts  in  colonial  days  after  he  once  entered  the 
field.  Perhaps  his  great  success  is  due  to  the  happy  union 
of  both  the  practical  and  the  theoretical  as  was  claimed  on 
the  title  pages  of  some  of  his  editions,  but  he  was  not  plan- 
ning to  please  those  who  like  to  "sweat  at  their  business."  23e 
Even  at  that  time  he  apologizes  for  getting  out  a  printed 
book,  so  strongly  intrenched  was  the  habit  of  each  pupil 
making  a  manuscript  arithmetic,  but  he  was  a  prophet  to 
recognize  that  type  was  far  more  likely  to  please  the  pupil 

137  There  is  a  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library. 
188  There  is  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  I2mo,  204  pages. 
09  Edition   of    1767,    I2mo,   pages    192,    in    Congressional    Library, 
his  New  Guide  to   the  English   Tongue. 


166  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

and  assist  the  teacher  than  any  other  device.  He  also  sought 
to  tempt  the  palate  by  a  collection  of  "pleasant  and  diverting 
questions,"  two  of  which  have  come  down  orally  to  the 
present  and  can  be  traced  back  in  the  past  for  nearly  a 
thousand  years.  A  couple  of  them  will  not  be  amiss  here  as 
illustrating  the  standard  at  that  time,  running  substantially 
thus: 

A  farmer  with  a  fox,  a  goose  and  a  peck  of  corn  has  to 
cross  a  river  in  a  boat  so  small  that  he  can  take  only  one  of 
these  three  burdens  with  him  at  a  time.  How  can  he  so 
handle  matters  that  nothing  will  be  destroyed,  because  he 
cannot  leave  the  fox  and  the  goose  together  nor  can  he  leave 
the  goose  and  the  corn. 

Again,  the  principle  of  this  problem  is  retained  under 
the  form  of  three  jealous  husbands  each  with  his  wife,  meet- 
ing the  same  conditions  on  the  river  bank.  How  are  they  to 
cross  so  that  none  of  the  wives  is  left  in  company  of  one  or 
two  men  unless  her  husband  is  also  present? 

There  is  a  third  modification  of  this  general  puzzle  in 
which  three  sorts  of  wine  and  three  vessels  figure. 

Another  example  is  a  little  more  mathematical:  "Let 
twelve  be  set  down  in  four  figures  and  each  figure  be  the 
same." 

Like  a  successful  teacher,  after  having  once  aroused  the 
interest  of  his  readers  by  these  alluring  bits,  DiUvorth  goes 
ahead  producing  a  book  not  so  different  in  aim  and  in  con- 
tent from  arithmetic  to-day  but  radically  otherwise  as  re- 
gards reasoning  and  the  use  of  the  dialogue.  In  fact  he  is 
the  closest  adherent  of  the  Cocker  school,  disdaining  all 
analysis  and  explanation  of  every  kind,  but  depending  upon 
a  veritable  thicket  of  formal  rules. 

SOME  MINOR  TITLES. 

On  the  shelves  of  New  England  libraries  there  are  other 
arithmetics  not  different  appreciably  from  those  already  de- 


Mathematics.  167 

scribed.  It  is  impossible  to  say  that  they  were  ever  used  in 
colonial  schools,  but  there  is  fairly  solid  ground  for  believing 
that  they  were.  Some  of  them  are  dated  later  than  this 
study  covers,  but  as  they  were  of  advanced  editions,  some  of 
the  earlier  issues  might  have  been  available  for  colonial 
schools.  A  brief  reference  to  some  of  them  will  not  be  use- 
less, if  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  indicate  that  the  colonial 
teacher  had  the  same  itch  for  changing  text-books  that  his 
successors  down  to  the  present  have  always  suffered  from. 

A  short  list  is  here  appended: 

Robert  Hartwell,  "philomathematicus,"  got  out  a  seventh 
edition  of  Blundevil,  a  large  book  of  800  pages,  of  which 
arithmetic  formed  only  a  small  part.240 

"Wingate's  Remains  or  the  Clerk's  Tutor  to  Arithmetic 
and  Writing,  being  a  miscellany  arithmetical  and  mathe- 
matical," admitting  that  he  leans  very  heavily  on  Cocker.241 

There  is  one  also  by  John  Hill,  containing  logarithms  and 
other  subjects  not  at  all  ranked  as  arithmetic  with  us.242 

The  title  of  William  Gordon's  "Universal  Accountant" 
indicates  very  clearly  the  general  drift  of  his  volume,  to  be 
practical.243 

Even  Ireland  was  drawn  upon,  as  there  is  Elias  Voster's 
arithmetic.  It  is  rather  hard  to  account  for  its  presence  in 
New  England  after  he  announces  on  the  title  page  that  it 
was  "chiefly  adapted  to  the  trade  of  Ireland,"  though  of 
course  a  wandering  son  of  Erin  may  have  brought  it  along 
in  his  baggage.244 

Daniel  Penning  was  almost  a  thesaurus  in  himself  as  his 

*°  In  Boston  Public  Library ; — London,  1636,  8vo,  square. 
141  In  American  Antiquarian  Society ;    London,  1676,  I2mo.,  pages 
207. 

10  In  American  Antiquarian  Society ;  London,  1761,  8vo.,  pages 
382. 

**In  American  Antiquarian  Soc. ;  4th  edition,  1777,  Edinburgh, 
2  volumes. 

**  In  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc. ;   2Oth  edition,  1793,  Dublin. 


168  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

"British  Youth's  Instructor"  has  everything  practically  that 
concerns  knowledge  in  general  in  a  verbal  contest  between 
"Philo"  and  "Tyro."  There  must  have  been  some  Tories 
who  adopted  this  for  use  as  this  edition  came  out  after  the 
Revolutionary  War.245 

Two  AMERICAN  ARITHMETICS. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  the  American  educators  and 
mathematicians  undertook  to  prepare  a  book  of  arithmetic. 
Here  as  in  so  many  of  the  other  lines  of  intellectual  pursuit 
Harvard  blazed  the  path.  After  many  claims  and  counter 
claims  it  is  now  settled  that  to  Professor  Isaac  Greenwood 
is  this  honor  due  for  his  arithmetic  of  1729,  when  he  was  still 
on  the  staff  of  the  oldest  American  University.  It  is  not 
known  that  his  book  was  even  adopted  in  Harvard  or  in 
any  other  school.  As  the  first  of  Americans  to  light  the 
torch  he  should  have  credit,  but  that  is  all.  He  did  not  ad- 
vance the  cause,  he  followed  in  the  beaten  path  of  the  others, 
covering  the  usual  ground  in  the  usual  way,  of  dead  rules 
without  reasoning.  It  is  not  known  that  more  than  three 
copies  have  survived  the  ravages  of  time.246  For  a  time 
Nicholas  Pike  was  urged  as  a  competitor  of  Greenwood  for 
the  distinction  of  breaking  the  sod  for  Americans,  but  he 
was  finally  disposed  of  in  favor  of  Greenwood.  There  are 
copies  of  his  in  existence,  at  least  two  being  known.247  He 
covers  the  usual  scope  for  arithmetic,  but  adds  a  great  deal 
else  not  included  under  the  term  at  the  present  day,  such  as 
bookkeeping,  calculations  on  the  calendar,  physics,  geometry, 
trigonometry,  surveying,  measurements  of  all  sorts,  algebra 
and  conic-sections. 

™  In  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc. ;   nth  edition,  1787,  I2mo,  302  pages. 

214  F.  Cajori,  Teach.  Hist,  of  Math.,  page  14,  one  of  these  three 
copies  is  in  the  Congressional  Library. 

*"  Both,  of  1788,  512  pages;  one  in  Congressional  Library,  and 
one  in  American  Antiquarian  Soc. 


Mathematics.  169 

THE  COLLEGE  COURSE. 

Much  of  the  arithmetic  already  described  and  many  of  the 
books  just  noted  were  used  in  the  colleges  of  the  times. 
Difficult  it  is  now  to  draw  the  line  between  the  preparatory 
institutions  and  the  colleges,  but  far  more  troublesome  a  task 
to  mark  the  limits  of  each  in  that  period  so  dim,  and  so 
scanty  of  material.  But  there  is  certainty  to  this  extent, 
that  arithmetic  was  one  of  the  regular  college  studies  and 
for  a  time  was  the  only  mathematical  branch,  excluding 
astronomy  and  geometry.  The  first  official  glimpse  afforded 
us  of  the  college  curriculum  in  America  248  has  arithmetic, 
geometry,  and  astronomy  in  the  last  year,  with  no  other 
mathematics,  and  the  next  hundred  years  bring  virtually  no 
change.  Indeed,  arithmetic  survives  much  later.  There  is 
record  of  it  in  the  senior  year  in  1725,  it  is  also  listed  in 
the  same  place  the  following  year.249  Still  more,  down  to 
the  Revolutionary  era,  both  in  Harvard  and  Yale  both 
student  and  teacher  mention  arithmetic  in  the  college,  even 
being  first  begun  there.250 

EARLY  MATHEMATICAL  CHAIRS. 

It  was  a  painful  strain  to  rise  from  these  rudiments,  and 
the  effort  could  be  made  only  after  there  had  been  enough 
growth  to  allow  a  division  of  labor.  One  of  the  earliest 
symptoms  is  connected  with  a  benefactor  of  Harvard, 
Thomas  Brattle,  who  left  two  hundred  pounds  from  his 
estate  in  1713  for  "the  maintenance  of  some  master  of 
arts  *  *  *  one  best  skilled  in  the  mathematics."  This 
auspicious  start  was  followed  by  one  of  the  best  friends  of 

""Harvard,  1643. 

M*  Wadsworth's  manuscript  diary,  Harvard  Archives,  page  18; 
Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  Vol.  i,  page  441,  much  being  based  on 
Wadsworth. 

*° American  Journal  of  Ed.,  Vol.  32,  page  873,  by  Josiah  Quincy; 
Stiles's  Diary,  Vol.  3,  page  312. 


170  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

the  institution  some  ten  years  later,  Thomas  Hollis,  in  his 
bestowal  of  a  fund  for  a  professorship  of  mathematics.  The 
holder  was  "to  be  a  master  of  arts  *  *  *  well  acquainted 
with  the  several  parts  of  the  mathematics  and  of  natural  and 
experimental  philosophy;  *  *  *  to  instruct  the  students  in 
a  system  of  natural  philosophy  and  a  course  of  experimental 
in  which  to  be  comprehended  pneumatics,  hydrostatics,  me- 
chanics, statics,  optics,  and  in  the  elements  of  geometry, 
together  with  the  doctrine  of  proportions,  the  principles  of 
algebra,  conic-sections,  plane  and  spherical  trigonometry, 
with  the  general  principles  of  mensuration,  planes  and  solids, 
in  the  principles  of  astronomy  and  geography,  viz, 'the  doc- 
trine of  the  sphere,  the  use  of  the  globes,  the  motions  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  according  to  the  different  hypotheses  of 
Ptolemy,  Tycho  Brahe  and  Copernicus,  with  the  general 
principles  of  dialling  the  divisions  of  the  world  into  its 
various  kingdoms,  with  the  use  of  the  maps,  etc."  In  ad- 
dition he  was  to  give  public  lectures,  and  to  finish  all  of 
these  sciences  in  two  years.  Brattle  was  very  thoughtful  in 
excusing  such  a  mathematician  and  scientist  from  assuming 
the  pastoral  office  in  any  church  and  he  also  graciously  per- 
mitted him  to  be  free  from  other  college  duties  than  the 
ones  marked  out  above.251  The  first  occupant  was  Isaac 
Greenwood,  who,  as  has  been  stated,  signalized  his  position 
by  getting  out  the  first  arithmetic.  But  mathematics  formed 
only  a  small  part  of  the  post.  It  was  really  more  science 
than  mathematics.  Greenwood  was  most  likely  far  more  at- 
tached to  physics  than  anything  else.  Some  six  or  seven 
years  after  being  installed  he  requested  the  privilege  of  tak- 
ing some  of  the  apparatus  to  his  home  for  the  vacation, 
almost  all  being  in  the  field  of  physics,  such  as  mirrors, 
cameras,  telescopes  and  quadrants,  with  the  orreries  and 
spheres. 

While  to  Harvard  is  yielded  the  palm  for  priority  of  be- 

151  Harvard  Archives,  January,  1726. 


Mathematics.  171 

ginning,  to  William  and  Mary  belongs  the  primacy  of  es- 
tablishment of  a  professorship  of  mathematics,  preceding 
her  New  England  sister  by  a  year  or  so.  The  first  incum- 
bent, Hugh  Jones,  was  also  an  author,  but  of  wider  range 
than  his  northern  brother  as  he  not  only  wrote  mathematics 
but  English  grammar,  history  and  theology. 

Science  may  have  proved  too  much  for  Greenwood's  re- 
ligious principles,  first  undermining  those  fundamental 
truths  and  then  weakening  his  moral  foundations.  He  be- 
came intemperate  and  finally  had  to  be  removed.  Hollis, 
the  founder  of  the  chair,  had  been  very  skeptical  about 
Greenwood  after  having  seen  him  on  a  trip  to  London  pur- 
chase half  a  dozen  pairs  of  silk  stockings.  He  gravely  wrote 
that  it  was  doubtful  whether  a  man  of  such  luxuriant  taste 
was  fit  for  the  severe  life  of  a  scientist. 

Nathan  Prince  followed  him  for  a  short  time,  but  was  in 
turn  superseded  by  John  Winthrop,  who  served  forty  years 
to  1779,  but  both  of  them  were  more  interested  in  science 
proper  than  in  mathematics.  During  his  long  term,  Win- 
throp made  considerable  use  of  Ward  as  a  text-book,  which 
will  be  described  a  few  pages  further  on.  He  also  used 
Gravesande  in  science  and  Euclid  in  geometry.  Astronomy 
was  in  his  care,  in  which  he  was  much  interested,  winning  a 
reputation  in  it  and  going  as  far  as  Newfoundland  at  one 
time  to  make  some  observations.  Generally  here  as  in  the 
other  institutions,  mathematics  was  a  handmaid  to  the  other 
subjects.  But  slight  encouragement  was  given  to  pure 
mathematics,  which  was  left  as  material  for  idle  dreamers  to 
speculate  upon. 

AT  YALE,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY,  AND  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Elsewhere  the  general  standard  scarcely  rose  to  the  level 
of  Harvard.  At  the  beginning  Yale  was  even  behind,  as 
late  as  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  having 
scarcely  more  than  a  little  arithmetic  with  some  survey- 


172  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ing.252  Gradually  Euclid  was  added  and  there  is  some  evi- 
dence that  algebra  was  taught  for  a  time  at  least  before 
1750.  It  is  not  safe  to  place  Harvard  as  early  as  this  in 
this  branch  if  we  have  to  demand  written  evidence.  Beyond 
the  end  of  the  period  designed  for  this  investigation,  we  learn 
of  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry,  conic-sec- 
tions, and  fluxions  being  in  the  course,  but  undoubtedly  a 
part  of  these  were  electives.  Ward  was  the  author  of  the 
most  of  the  books  in  all  these  branches. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  head 
of  Pennsylvania  University  flamed  out  in  a  very  full  course 
in  mathematics,  practically  the  same  as  we  have  seen  at 
Yale  much  later,  but  whether  they  were  all  actually  studied 
is  a  matter  of  inference  largely. 

As  has  been  said,  William  and  Mary  out  ran  all  others  in 
providing  for  a  regular  instructor  in  mathematics,  Hugh 
Jones,  in  1724.  It  is  the  belief  of  the  most  thorough-going 
student  of  the  matter  that  William  and  Mary  at  that  time 
was  fully  abreast  of  Yale  and  Harvard  in  this  subject.253 

THE  NET  RESULTS  IN  COUJSGE. 

These  subjects  were  numerous  certainly  for  the  needs 
then  and  very  largely  for  the  discipline  now,  but  they  were  in 
a  different  atmosphere  from  ours.  There  was  but  little  aim 
to  use  them  as  means  for  mental  development.  The  entire 
spirit  was  utilitarian.  With  arithmetic  as  the  bed  rock 
designed  to  fit  men  for  the  daily  affairs  of  life,  there  were 
usually  some  six  books  of  Euclid  to  lay  the  foundation  for 
that  other  highly  practical  study,  surveying.  Necessarily 
practice  with  the  rod  and  chain  called  for  trigonometry. 
The  more  theoretical  branches,  such  as  algebra,  conic-sec- 
tions and  fluxions,  came  very  late  in  the  period  under  in- 
vestigation. It  can  be  readily  surmised  that  they  received 

582  F.  Cajori,  Teaching  and  History  of  Mathematics,  page  28. 
853  F.  Cajori,  Teaching  and  History  of  Mathematics,  page  33. 


Mathematics.  173 

only  cold  glances  upon  their  introduction  into  the  college, 
because  warmth  of  welcome  was  extended  to  those  branches 
that  would  aid  men  in  making  a  living.  These  were  the  ones 
favored  with  donation  in  the  shape  of  instruments  and 
books.  It  was  a  complete  set  of  surveying  instruments  that 
Joseph  Thompson  donated  to  Yale  about  1730.  It  was  sur- 
veying that  Jefferson  studied  at  William  and  Mary  to  his 
advantage,  and  it  was  in  this  subject  that  Washington  re- 
ceived his  commission  from  this  college,  the  only  academic 
connection  he  ever  had  with  any  institution.  It  was  in  the 
allied  subjects  of  navigation,  dialling,  and  fortifications  that 
Pennsylvania  University  blossomed  so  abundantly  under 
President  Smith. 

SOME  OF  THE  TEXT-BOOKS  USED. 

How  far  advance  was  made  along  each  of  these  paths  is  a 
matter  of  conjecture  very  largely,  especially  for  the  latter 
part  of  the  journey.  There  are,  it  is  true,  manuscript  text- 
books in  that  indespensable  repository  in  Worcester,  Mass., 
and  elsewhere,  but  whether  they  represent  the  limit  then  no 
one  can  assert  positively,  still  less  are  they  a  fair  index  for 
what  was  done  after  the  printed  books  came  into  such 
general  use. 

Nevertheless  they  are  of  considerable  help  in  forming 
our  opinions.  There  is  one  by  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  after  the 
Revolutionary  War,  almost  a  quarto  of  324  pages,  covering 
algebra,  plane  and  solid  geometry,  trigonometry,  conic-sec- 
tions, infinites  and  logarithms,  with  arithmetic  at  the  end.254 
It  is  nearly  all  by  positive  directions  and  rules,  emphasized 
with  question  and  answer.  In  algebra  he  went  into  quad- 
ratics, extraction  of  roots,  and  evolution,  but  a  large  part 
is  devoted  to  miscellaneous  questions.  His  conies  are  very 
elementary,  while  his  arithmetic  is  nearly  all  interest  and  his 

**  Dated  August  23,  1788,  beginning  algebra  on  the  first  of  August. 
1787,  as  he  states :  in  Boston  Public  Library. 


174  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

geometry  may  be  about  one-half  of  what  we  have  to-day. 
The  most  marked  feature  is  the  number  of  problems  with 
their  detailed  solutions. 

But  one  of  the  most  widely  used  is  John  Ward's  Young 
Mathematicians'  Guide,  which  ran  up  to  at  least  a  dozen 
editions  with  a  total  of  some  500  pages.  It  was  a  little  ency- 
clopedia, for  its  day,  of  mathematics,  as  it  had  arithmetic, 
algebra,  geometry,  conic-sections  infinites,  gauging  and  log- 
arithms. All  of  these  being  in  such  small  compass  none  was 
expanded  very  much.  He  was  meagre  in  all  of  them.  His 
arithmetic  dispenses  with  reasoning  but  relies  upon  rules, 
the  universal  crutch  at  that  time.  His  algebra  was  without 
factoring,  and  his  notions  of  it  were  rather  crude.  Such  as 
he  was  he  was  the  prevailing  favorite  for  practically  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  at  Harvard,  Yale,  Brown,  Dartmouth 
and  Pennsylvania. 

Many  others  that  have  lived  to  the  present  are  Samuel 
Cunn,  Edmond  Stone,  Isaac  Barrow,  all  three  still  on  the 
shelves  in  Worcester.  There  are  two  others  older  and  more 
dignified  than  these,  Gravesande  and  Alsted.  The  latter 
furnished  a  geometry  in  use  both  at  Yale  and  Harvard,  but 
not  specially  different  from  those  already  mentioned.  Grave- 
sande followed  the  custom  of  the  day  in  ranging  over  great 
stretches  of  knowledge,  including  physics  and  metaphysics 
and  logic.  These  last  furnish  a  speculative  tinge  to  his 
efforts  and  at  one  place  he  gives  us  a  mathematical  demon- 
stration of  the  care  that  Providence  takes  to  protect  the 
affairs  of  earth  by  the  relative  number  of  the  two  sexes. 
Outside  of  these  religious  shades  his  mathematics  are  of 
the  prevailing  type. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  developments  preserved  for 
us  of  the  mathematics  of  the  period  is  the  collection  of 
mathematical  theses  at. Harvard  University.  The  most  of 
them  are  large  and  elaborate,  showing  the  minutest  pains, 
evidently  designed  for  exhibition  purposes.  They  also  indi- 


Mathematics.  175 

cate  the  bent  of  the  teaching  as  the  topics  are  drawn  largely 
from  surveying  and  measuring.  The  astronomical  ones  are 
very  ornate,  some  of  them  having  very  creditable  maps  of 
the  world.  There  are  questions  in  algebra,  but  largely  ele- 
mentary, though  they  are  worked  out  with  a  vast  display  of 
tabulation  and  beautiful  lettering.  For  instance,  there  are 
twenty-one  steps  covering  a  folio  sheet  for  solving  the  fol- 
lowing: "Three  gentlemen,  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry,  have 
each  so  many  guineas  that  if  Tom's  and  Dick's  be  added  to 
half  of  Harry's  that  number  will  equal  92;  that  if  Dick's 
and  Harry's  be  added  to  one-third  of  Tom's  that  number  will 
equal  92,  and  if  Harry's  and  Tom's  be  added  to  one-fourth 
of  Dick's  that  number  will  equal  92;  question,  how  man) 
guineas  have  each  gentleman  ?" 

ALGEBRA. 

This  example  occurs  in  the  Revolutionary  era.  As  has 
been  said,  algebra  was  of  rather  slight  development  in  our 
colonial  days,  but  it  has  a  distinction  pretty  much  its  own 
among  the  mathematical  branches,  it  was  the  first  cultivated 
for  its  own  sake  without  the  ulterior  intent  of  harnessing 
it  immediately  for  daily  work. 

Delightful  it  is  to  historians  and  philosophers  to  follow 
a  thread  back  to  its  beginning.  Often  this  can  be  done  only 
by  leaping  over  breaks  or  very  carefully  crawling  over  pre- 
cipitous canyons  where  the  line  is  worn  almost  through, 
finally  reaching  a  part  where  the  original  material  is  changed 
into  almost  another  element.  But  by  such  skillful  gymnas- 
tics algebra  has  been  discovered  as  among  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians in  its  germs  at  least,  though  the  form  was  so  different 
that  only  by  working  up  through  the  different  stages  could 
the  embryo  be  recognized  as  the  original  seed.  But  we  do 
come  across  something  that  we  can  consider  as  containing 
the  idea  of  this  branch.  There  is  found  in  the  distant  ages 


176  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

this  example,  "heap,  its  seventh,  its  whole  makes  19,"  or 

x 
transposed  to  modern  notions,  " —  plus  x=i9."     But  it  is 

7 

sharp  insight  to  see  all  this  and  to  discover  algebra  in  the 
middle  ages  as  it  is  only  in  the  seventeenth  century  that  we 
really  find  anything  such  as  we  now  unite  in  calling 
algebra.265 

As  always,  this  plunge  into  the  unknown  excited  men's 
imagination.  To  the  first  explorers  it  was  something  huge 
and  incomprehensible.  To  John  Ward  it  was  "that  mysteri- 
ous science."256  With  such  a  tincture  of  mysticism  and 
metaphysics  a  hodge-podge  of  arithmetical  geometry  and 
other  mathematics  was  a  very  direct  consequence.  He  still 
had  not  divorced  himself  from  the  practical  view  of  mathe- 
matics as  he  had  a  great  deal  on  interest  computations. 
Neither  had  he  got  over  the  sin  of  formal  rules,  as  his 
volume  is  built  on  those  entirely.  Three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury later  to  John  Gough  algebra  was  the  "great  art,"  "a 
method  of  managing  arithmetical  and  geometrical  computa- 
tions by  letters."  25T  There  is  another  author  to  be  found 
in  the  list  of  colonial  text-books,  Hammond,  filled  mostly 
with  the  detailed  solution  of  problems.268 

How  much  was  studied  in  our  colleges  in  those  early  days 
cannot  be  accurately  determined  now,  but  on  this  we  can 
rely  pretty  confidently  that  not  much  ground  was  covered. 
There  is  data  that  Yale  had  something  of  it,  not  more  than 
the  rudiments,  as  early  as  1742.  There  is  not  positive  men- 
tion of  it  at  Harvard  so  far  as  known  earlier  than  1786, 
though  we  must  infer  that  it  was  offered  in  the  classes  many 

*"  D.  E.  Smith,  Teaching  of  Mathematics,  1906,  pages  68,  145, 

**  A  Compendium  of  Algebra,  London,  1724,  220  pages. 

257  Edition  of  1798,  with  appendix  by  W.  Atkinson,  on  algebra  en- 
tirely containing  binominal  theorem  but  mostly  dealing  with 
problems. 

**  1742  edition,  8vo,  pages  328. 


Mathematics.  177 

years  before  that  time.  There  had  been  a  development 
along  other  mathematical  branches,  and  besides  it  is  not  at  all 
likely  that  the  two  institutions  so  close  to  each  other  would 
have  been  so  far  apart  in  the  order  of  introducing  this  new 
branch.  It  is  possible  that  it  was  also  in  use  in  the  other 
colonial  colleges. 

ASTRONOMY. 

Far  more  than  algebra  was  astronomy  a  land  of  magic  and 
mystery  to  the  masses  of  our  colonial  ancestors  and  still 
more  so  to  their  medieval  forefathers.  Those  boundless 
spaces  above  and  around  were  the  haunts  for  ignorance, 
superstition,  credulity.  Here  the  imagination  had  full  play 
for  its  wildest  absurdities  and  most  intricate  perplexities. 
From  these  vast  unsounded  depths  came  the  awful  misfor- 
tunes that  assailed  the  human  race.  The  invisible  powers 
working  there  sent  forth  their  dread  portents  and  wrought 
all  the  terrible  disasters  in  the  shape  of  drought,  pestilence, 
fevers,  overwhelming  storms,  fiery  darts  and  calamities  of 
all  sorts  that  could  neither  be  understood  nor  controlled. 
Eclipses,  auroras,  comets,  and  all  other  unusual  phenomena 
struck  terror  into  the  breasts  of  people  and  filled  their  souls 
with  awe. 

Whenever  the  theologians  took  the  matter  in  hand  and 
tried  to  expound  their  doctrine  they  only  added  confusion  to 
stupidity.  They  could  see  fiery  horsemen  in  the  Heavens, 
they  could  almost  feel  the  flash  of  the  waving  sword,  and 
almost  hear  the  crack  of  doom  and  the  roar  of  flames  in  such 
an  event  as  an  aurora.  Bishop  Hall  peopled  the  stars  and 
the  depths  around  with  throngs  of  angels  to  do  the  bidding 
of  the  Almighty,  so  innumerable  that  only  the  Deity  could 
count  them.  But  they  kept  the  machinery  in  motion,  they 
turned  the  crystallized  spheres,  they  whirled  the  moon 
around  and  brought  about  those  "strange  concussations  of 
the  earth"  and  "direful  prodigies  in  the  sky."  To  these 

12 


178  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ecclesiastical  warriors  the  stars  and  the  whole  of  the  blue 
vault  above  were  only  for  man's  edification  and  interest. 
He  was  made  of  an  upright  form  so  that  he  could  toss  his 
head  back  and  look  upon  these  creations  and  learn  astron- 
omy. But  their  notions  of  it  were  a  medley  of  the  Ptolemaic 
theory  which  placed  the  world  in  the  center,  jumbled  up  with 
the  odds  and  ends  of  astrology  and  all  kinds  of  specu- 
lations.269 

MATHER  ON  COMETS. 

In  this  channel  house  for  the  supernatural  and  the  sensa- 
tional, Increase  Mather  was  in  his  happiest  element.  He 
especially  revelled  in  the  study  of  comets.  Here  was  some- 
thing that  he  could  let  his  fancy  run  upon  without  limit,  as 
these  strange  bodies  came  out  of  the  obscurity  and  soon 
disappeared  in  it  again.  To  him  they  were  "horrendous," 
and  "portentous  signs  of  evil  events,"  but  beyond  the  range 
of  man's  intellect  to  grasp,  being  the  manifestation  of  God's 
inscrutable  will.  He  preached  a  sermon  on  them,  he  wrote 
a  book  about  them.  His  deliverances  were  the  very  acme 
of  medieval  scholarship.  He  raked  all  history,  especially 
the  ancient,  and  he  compiled  their  views  but  of  real  inde- 
pendent thinking  on  his  own  part  he  was  as  bare  as  a 
calculating  machine,  except  in  one  respect.  He  sneered  at 
the  astrologers  who  claimed  to  foretell  the  future  from  these 
striking  manifestations.  He  also  rather  shrewdly  concluded 
that  they  were  of  the  same  elements  as  the  planets,  both  com- 
ing from  "natural  causes"  just  as  earthquakes  did.260 

EDUCATIONAL  USES. 

But  all  of  this  baseless  speculation  and  all  of  these  terrify- 
ing fears  eventuated  very  early  in  something  practical. 

359  Eggleston  in  his  Transit  of  Civilization  has  a  brilliant  descrip- 
tion of  astronomical  knowledge  in  the  Seventeenth  century. 

280  His  sermon  on  Comets  was  published  in  the  Philosophical  Trans- 
actions, his  book  appeared  in  Boston  in  1683,  reprinted  in  London  in 
1811,  8vo,  page  60.  Both  are  in  the  Boston  Public  Library. 


Mathematics.  179 

Throughout  the  dark  ages  it  was  a  weapon  for  religion  to 
calculate  the  time  of  Easter  and  other  church  festivals.  It 
was  soon  degraded  from  this  pious  purpose  by  designers  and 
sharpers  to  work  on  the  simplicity  of  the  multitude.  Astrol- 
ogers twisted  it  for  their  aims  and  pretended  to  cast  hore- 
scopes  by  a  study  of  the  twinkling  points  in  the  darkness 
overhead. 

In  time  it  was  led  to  the  further  aid  of  man.  Almanacs 
were  slowly  evolved.  Alexander  Nowell  perhaps  deserves 
the  badge  as  the  predecessor  of  all  American  astronomical 
writers,  with  his  Cambridge  almanac  of  i666.261  A  Harvard 
man  may  be  almost  neck  and  neck  in  this  race,  as  Urian 
Oakes,  a  Harvard  graduate  of  1649,  &ot  out  rather  early  in 
his  career  a  set  of  astronomical  calculations.262 

Something  more  educational  and  more  scientfic  is  a  word 
or  two  to  be  found  about  the  telescope  owned  by  Governor 
Winthrop  in  1664  and  some  subsequent  communications  to 
him  by  three  Fellows  at  Harvard  some  seven  years  later, 
describing  the  Harvard  telescopes.263 

From  such  mists  and  fogbanks  with  only  small  lights  of 
real  knowledge,  there  could  not  be  very  helpful  teaching  in 
the  schools.  But  it  was  in  the  colleges  from  the  beginning. 
Being  yoked  with  religion  so  intimately  it  went  wherever 
that  branch  was  taught.  The  chief  text-book  was  that  of 
Pierre  Gassendus.264  The  bulk  of  his  volumes  is  devoted 
to  what  we  would  call  mathematical  geography  at  the  present 
day  as  he  treats  of  the  motions  of  the  sun,  moon,  earth, 
planets.  He  also  has  considerable  historical  material  on 
Copernicus  and  Tycho  Brahe  and  Gallileo.  Some  of  the 

181  Eggleston,  Transit  of  Civilization,  page  6. 
**  Peirce,  History  of  Harvard,  page  44. 

**  Proceedings  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  Second  series,  Vol.  4,  page 
265,  1887. 

14  "Institution  astronomicae,"  London,  1643.  There  is  in  the  same 
library,  Boston  Public,  an  edition  of  1682,  I2mo.  Both  are  in  Latin 
throughout. 


180  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

later  editions  are  also  embellished  with  figures.  And  some 
of  the  earlier  ones  are  taken  up  in  large  part  with  an  oration 
on  the  value  and  scope  of  astronomy  in  education. 

Springing  from  the  gloom  of  primitive  days,  entangled  in 
the  chaos  of  theology  and  metaphysics,  distorted  by  the  base 
hands  of  astrologers  fettered  by  the  bonds  of  ecclesiasticism, 
at  first  the  mystery  of  science,  the  emergence  of  astronomy 
into  the  educational  highway  was  slow  and  painful.  It 
perhaps  has  at  last  reached  its  true  rank  in  the  lists  of  the 
college  curriculum.  No  longer  is  it  indispensable  for  gradu- 
ation but  at  least  it  is  offered  in  a  scientific  way  in  all  of 
the  stronger  institutions,  but  required  in  none. 

A  THOUGHTFUL  CRITIC  UNNOTICED. 

We  can  now  see  how  thin  and  elementary  the  whole  course 
in  mathematics  was,  and  how  it  was  pitched  in  the  wrong 
key.  But  it  is  a  rare  wise  man  among  us  at  any  time  that 
gets  the  proper  perspective  of  the  present.  The  road  behind 
us  is  so  much  more  easily  measured  and  mapped  than  the 
dim  waving  paths  we  are  trying  to  tread.  We  now  look 
back  to  those  days  and  placidly  note  how  the  schools 
blundered  and  sprawled  in  the  mud  and  blindly  drifted  from 
the  road,  and  yet  all  done  in  loyal  earnestness  to  the  light 
they  had.  But  how  infinitely  superior  is  that  observer  who 
could  point  out  the  mistakes  as  they  were  made.  His  voice 
was  muffled  in  the  choking  and  discordant  cries  about  him, 
no  heed  was  paid  to  his  warnings,  but  after  the  lapse  of 
several  centuries  we  can  hear  his  tones  high  and  clear,  arous- 
ing a  regret  that  the  great  column  of  teachers  had  not  lis- 
tened and  saved  us  from  that  weary  straying  in  the  wilder- 
ness. In  John  Webster  inhered  such  an  eye  of  vision.  It 
was  he  that  called  in  vain  to  the  great  mass  groping  help- 
lessly here  and  there.  They  are  words  of  condemnation  too, 
the  few  transcribed  here  to  show  how  keenly  he  looked  about 
him. 


Mathematics.  181 

To  him  the  whole  subject  of  mathematics  was  "slightly 
and  superficially  handled."  Arithmetic  was  "useless,  and  of 
no  value,  but  transmitted  over  to  the  hands  of  merchants 
and  mechanics,  as  though  it  were  a  liberal  science,  or  not 
worthy  the  study  and  pains  of  an  ingenuous  and  noble 
spirit."  In  the  teaching  of  geometry  were  the  "same  super- 
ficial slightness  and  supine  negligence:"  no  "clear  demon- 
stration:" no  "perfect  practice;  contenting  with  the  sole 
verbal  disputes  of  magnitude,  quantity  and  the  affections 
thereof,"  "leaving  the  practice  and  application  thereof  to 
masons,  carpenters,  surveyors,  and  such  like  manual  opera- 
tors." Astronomy  was  taught  "according  to  the  peripatetick 
and  Ptolemaic  systeme  *  *  *  extolled  to  the  heavens ;"  yet 
in  all  scholastic  learning  there  was  "not  found  any  piece  so 
rotten,  ruinous,  absurd  and  deformed:  *  *  *  they  take  for 
granted  *  *  *  that  the  earth  is  the  center  of  the  uni- 
verse *  *  *  thence  deduce  the  causes  of  gravity  and 
levity  *  *  *  grossly  maintain  that  the  heavens  or  orbs  are 
as  hard  as  steel,  and  as  transparent  as  glass."265 

**  Webster's  Examen  Academiarum,  page  40,  etc. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SCIENCE. 

For  centuries  the  Bible  had  been  to  all  the  western  world 
the  very  acorn  of  the  tree  of  knowledge.  Theology  was  the 
only  true  philosophy.  All  the  ancient  authorities  were  only 
the  unconscious  revelation  of  the  Almighty.  The  classics 
then  became  a  secondary  source  of  learning.  Even  to  the 
Italian  humanists  the  most  profound  truths  in  all  the  depart- 
ments of  life  were  to  be  sought  for  in  the  ancient  literatures, 
along  with  the  church  fathers.266  Here  then  was  the  store- 
house of  the  intellect  contained  in  these  pages  of  written 
words.  Enter,  gather,  arrange,  extract  the  thoughts  and 
all  ignorance  can  be  removed.  The  champion  systematizer, 
the  giant  analyzer,  the  unrivalled  dialectician,  furnished  the 
method  and  led  the  way.  It  was  to  Aristotle  that  all  thinkers 
and  investigators  turned.  He  forged  the  tools,  he  built  the 
machinery.  His  mental  ciderpress  could  squeeze  the  last 
drop  of  meaning  from  the  raw  materials  of  thought.  Know 
your  book,  said  Roger  Bacon,  and  you  know  everything  of 
the  subject  that  the  book  treats  of.267 

It  was  treason  to  doubt  Aristotle's  infallibility,  it  was  a 
sacrilege  to  find  something  outside  of  him.  The  story  of  the 
sun  spots  is  well  known  and  has  already  been  related.  It 
is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  common  property,  the  scornful 
question  that  Dr.  Primrose  asked  of  the  English  physician 
who  almost  revolutionized  medicine  by  his  discovery  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood :  "Would  you  have  us  believe  you 
know  something  that  Aristotle  did  not  know  ?  Aristotle  ob- 
served everything  and  no  one  should  dare  to  come  after 

""W.  H.  Woodward,  Vittorino,  page  196. 
887  Cotnpayre's  Abelard,  page  188. 


Science  183 

him."  268  Like  the  shadow  on  the  Hartz  mountains  Aris- 
totle towered  in  the  heavens  with  his  feet  lost  in  the  distant 
horizon,  a  mighty  monarch  of  the  mind  to  whom  all  were 
in  thralldom.  With  the  sharp-edged  weapons  that  he  had 
fabricated,  with  the  arsenal  of  the  early  writers,  all  diffi- 
culties were  to  be  battered  down,  but  all  under  the  dominion 
of  religion.  For  seven  centuries  no  composition  of  any 
renown  can  be  found,  except  from  the  pen  of  a  professional 
churchman.  There  was  philosophy,  which  means  a  certain 
freedom  of  thought,  but  there  could  be  no  science,  as  science 
means  free  investigation.  Even  in  their  ideal  schemes  men 
hardly  recognized  anything  outside  of  the  languages.  Hoole, 
a  very  capable  teacher,  whose  notions  of  education  contained 
something  good  for  us  even  at  the  present  day,  in  an  elab- 
orate plan  for  the  training  of  youth,  covering  six  years,  had 
nothing  about  mathematics  or  science.  But  he  ran  glibly  and 
joyously  over  nearly  all  of  the  lines  of  knowledge,  depending 
upon  past  achievements  of  mankind,  history,  Latin,  hiero- 
glyphics, rhetoric,  witty  sentences,  customs,  and  all  those 
things  for  which  men  turn  their  faces  to  the  rear  for  grasp- 
ing.289 The  Italian  revival  of  learning  brought  a  little  of 
the  fag  ends  of  science,  but  chiefly  to  enable  the  pupils  to 
understand  allusions  to  such  matters  in  the  old  writers.270 
The  University  of  Edinburgh  climbed  a  little  higher,  but  it 
was  only  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Ap- 
parently some  of  the  elements  of  modern  physics  were 
offered  then,  but  much  mixed  with  speculation  and  meta- 
physics. They  presented  courses  in  pneumatical  philosophy, 
treating  of  spiritual  substances  such  as  God,  angels,  souls 
of  men.  These  lectures  were  heard  by  the  same  students 

**  So  quoted  by  Eggleston  in  his  Transit,  page  48,  from  the  Aubrey 
preparatory  memoir  to  the  reprint  of  Exercitatio,  or  Willis's  Life 
of  Harvey.  These  exact  words  were  not  found  in  the  books  on  this 
matter  in  the  Library  of  Congress. 

289  J.  P.  W.  Adamson,  Pioneers  of  Modern  Education,  page  166. 

170  W.  H.  Woodward,  Vittorino,  page  223. 


184  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

that  listened  to  expositions,  hydrostatics,  mechanics,  optics 
and  other  divisions  of  this  branch.  But  these  up  to  fifty 
years  before  were  only  hollow  sounding  names,  they  meant 
nothing  really  as  the  whole  of  "natural  philosophy"  at  Edin- 
burgh was  only  a  rehash  of  Aristotle's  utterances  on  that 
subject.271  In  other  places  in  earlier  times  there  had  been 
lectures  on  physiology,  "mixed  or  imperfect  bodies,  or  per- 
fect bodies."  Meteors  were  a  type  of  the  former,  while  the 
metals,  plants  and  animals  were  classed  as  perfect.272 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  GREAT  THINKERS. 

Even  the  great  names  that  we  are  accustomed  to  revere 
excite  only  the  pity  and  derision  of  even  the  half  educated 
among  us  to-day  if  we  only  consider  their  attitude  towards 
science.  The  great  Lord  Bacon  "flounders  like  a  stranded 
leviathan  when  he  seeks  to  explore  the  coasts  of  physical 
science."273  John  Locke,  who  was  so  sane,  and  so  prophetic 
of  the  educational  development  of  to-day,  is  very  hazy  and 
confusing  when  he  makes  an  incursion  into  science,  reduc- 
ing nature  to  spirits  and  physics,  finally  confessing  that  it  is 
too  deep  a  matter  for  man  to  understand.  The  philosophers 
who  did  have  something  of  courage  in  their  opinions  were 
halting  and  stammering,  the  religious  leaders  were  timid  and 
obscure.  Melanchthon  is  a  specimen.  He  gulps  down  Aris- 
totle in  numerous  broken  doses,  he  sets  out  with  metaphysi- 
cal fogs,  slides  into  some  material  descriptions,  and  closes 
with  religion  and  prayer,  all  a  theological  thicket,  although 
he  claims  to  be  discussing  physiology. 

JOHN  BAPTIST  PORTA. 

But  it  is  among  the  professional  scientists  of  the  day  that 
we  run  across  the  densest  conglomeration  of  credulity  and 

271  Grant,  University  of  Edinburgh,  Vol.  i,  pages  272,  273. 
*™  J.  W.  Stubbs,  page  44,  University  of  Dublin. 
878  Eggleston,  Transit,  page  10. 


Science.  185 

classicism.  A  voracious  gosling  was  Porta,  greedily  swal- 
lowing anything  that  had  Latin  or  Greek  mold  on  it.  Aris- 
totle is  to  him  the  final  clincher  for  the  most  startling  mar- 
vels. So  simple  too  and  frank  in  his  self-confidence  that 
he  is  amusing.  It  is  a  breath  of  freshness  that  strikes  us 
when  he  says  that  "if  ever  any  man  labored  earnestly  to 
disclose  the  secrets  of  nature  it  was  I,"  and  this  too  in  his 
second  edition,  thirty-five  years  after  his  first  which  had 
come  out  when  he  was  the  mature  age  of  fifteen.  "Cost 
me  much  study,  travel,  expense  and  much  inconvenience" 
but  he  is  content  to  make  all  this  sacrifice  in  order  to  re- 
move "all  blindness  and  malice  for  finding  both  truth  and 
profit." 

There  is  no  cloying  sense  of  modesty  here  to  embarrass 
our  bold  scientist  and  he  does  not  falter  at  almost  any  topic 
of  nature.  His  Natural  Magic274  bridges  theory  and  prac- 
tice, the  latter  being  a  recognition  of  the  spirit  of  the  times 
He  is  tinctured  with  abstractions.  To  him  the  whole  uni- 
verse is  sexual,  fire  is  male,  air,  female ;  water  is  male,  earth, 
female;  planets  are  partly  both  and  mercury  decidedly  bi- 
sexual. All  monstrosities  are  swallowed  whole.  Water 
birds  come  from  rotting  wood,  eels  from  mud  mixed  with 
rain  water  or  from  dead  horses,  fish  from  froth  and  oysters 
from  frothy  mud.  The  loadstone  attracts  iron  because  of 
the  exceeding  love  between  the  two  so  that  the  iron  will 
stand  on  end  as  if  it  held  up  its  hands  in  supplication  to 
the  loadstone. 

But  it  is  in  his  account  of  the  origin  of  life  that  he  sails 
out  into  the  dark  borders  of  superstition.  In  the  early  times, 
as  he  develops  his  notions,  the  soft  and  slimy  earth  was  soon 
dried  by  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  tumors  and  swellings  were 
produced  on  the  surface  and  uppermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
"In  these  tumors  were  contained  and  cherished  many  putre- 

m  Maziaenaturalis,  libri  viginti,  Batavorum,  1651,  I2mo,  pages  670. 
with  index  afterwards. 


i86  Our  Colonial  Curiiculum. 

factions  and  rotten  clods,  covered  with  certain  small  skins; 
this  putrefied  stuff  being  moistened  with  dew  by  night,  and 
the  sun  heating  it  by  day,  after  a  certain  season  became  ripe ; 
and  the  skins  being  broken,  thence  issued  all  kinds  of  liv- 
ing creatures."  Those  that  had  the  most  heat  were  birds, 
the  earthly  ones  were  beasts  while  the  water  ones  were  fish, 
but  a  medley  of  all  these  were  walking  creatures.  Now, 
the  heat  of  the  sun  continuing  destroyed  this  creative  capac- 
ity of  the  globe  so  that  all  the  different  species  were  the  re- 
sult of  crossing  the  breeds  of  these. 

His  grave  recipe  for  the  generation  of  bees  from  dead 
cattle  would  surely  have  called  down  upon  him  the  society 
for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals  of  the  present  day. 
Take  an  ox,  he  says,  two  or  three  years  old  and  have  lusty 
fellows  kill  him  with  their  cudgels,  breaking  his  bones  with- 
out drawing  any  blood  or  striking  him  too  fiercely  at  the 
first — pounding  him  to  death  gently.  Then  cast  honey  under 
him,  close  the  doors  and  windows  securely  and  after  a  few 
weeks  "you  shall  find  the  room  full  of  bees  clotted  together 
and  nothing  of  the  ox  remaining  besides  the  horns,  the  bones 
and  the  hair."  The  best  bees  he  believes  come  from  young 
oxen  while  the  baser  bees  come  from  lower  creatures — per- 
haps the  mule  or  the  donkey. 

But  all  of  his  profundity  of  information  must  be  put  at 
the  disposal  of  men  for  their  aid  and  comfort.  With  the 
throbbing  soul  of  the  philanthropist  he  is  stirred  especially 
to  help  the  weaker  sex.  He  has  full  directions  for  the 
preparation  of  unguents,  cosmetics  the  removal  of  hair  from 
the  face,  for  whitening  the  skin  and  reddening  the  cheeks. 
Especially  solicitous  is  he  for  the  hair  of  women  as  women 
dote  on  "yellow  shining  and  radiant"  hair,  gray  hairs  of 
course  being  very  distasteful  to  them.  To  save  this  morti- 
fication he  tells  them  to  annoint  their  hair  with  a  corrup- 
tion of  leeches  in  vinegar  in  a  leaden  vessel  but  they  had 
better  hold  oil  in  their  mouth  at  the  time  of  application  else 


Science.  187 

the  stuff  will  strike  through  and  make  their  teeth  black 
also.275 

He  is  not  alone  in  his  notions  of  nature.  Some  of  his  con- 
temporaries narrated  still  greater  wonders. — Such  as  a  boy 
with  an  elephant's  head,  a  man  with  an  eagle's  wings  and  a 
horse's  tail,  other  men  with  one,  two,  three  and  four  eyes. 
The  keenest  intelligence  was  solemnly  attributed  to  animals. 
Bears  were  said  to  eat  honey  in  order  to  have  the  bees  sting 
them  so  as  to  get  a  pleasant  sensation  or  to  revive  them  from 
torpidity  or  to  restore  failing  sight  by  letting  out  blood. 
The  very  fat  hippopotamus  deliberately  rolled  himself  over 
sharp  pointed  reeds  to  bleed  himself  and  prevent  apoplexy — 
a  kind  of  river  horse-doctor. 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  BAGGAGE  TAKEN  TO  AMERICA. 

Our  ancestors  were  the  dupes  that  outfitted  themselves 
liberally  in  science  from  these  abounding  depots  of  credu- 
lousness.  They  went  to  a  strange  land  and  soon  adjusted 
themselves  to  the  seasons  and  the  products  when  they  had 
to  find  food  or  provide  shelter.  But  in  the  realm  of  thought 
whenever  they  needed  a  pin  or  button  they  always  rushed 
to  those  trunks  that  they  had  lugged  along  with  them  across 
the  Atlantic.  They  relied  on  the  ancients  with  the  most 
trusting  childlike  faith  for  any  explanation  of  natural  phe- 
nomena that  came  under  their  eyes.  The  forests  around 
them  rang  with  the  cry  of  bird  and  beast,  but  when  they 
wanted  to  solve  any  puzzle  that  they  noted  in  animal  life 
they  leaped  back  years  to  Pliny,  "the  greatest  gull  of  an- 
tiquity." The  best  educated  among  them  stared  in  the 
greatest  amazement  at  everything  unusual  and  clutched  at 
baseless  theories  that  the  few  naked  savages  around 
them  would  have  scarcely  tolerated.  The  ministers 
"acted  as  soothsayers  and  expounded  the  hidden  meaning 
of  monstrous  births  and  even  played  showman  to  exhibit 

m  Natural  Magic,  page  235. 


1 88  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

these  ghastly  messages  from  the  Almighty."276  The  doctors 
were  almost  as  crude  and  primitive  as  medicine  men  in  Cen- 
tral Africa.  They  looked  up  to  Paracelsus  and  wrought 
cures  on  the  principle  of  like  by  like.  A  toad  has  warts 
therefore  the  application  of  them  is  good  for  small  pox.  If 
you  suffer  from  jaundice,  why  color  the  milk  that  you  drink 
with  saffron  and  you  will  be  free  from  your  trouble. 

CHARTS  MORTON  AS  A  SCIENCE  TEACHER  IN  AMERICA 

But  a  composite  photograph  is  never  as  near  the  truth 
as  an  exact  likeness  to  some  individual  who  is  a  fair  ex- 
ample of  the  group.  Luckily  we  have  such  a  portrait  in 
Charles  Morton  who  came  over  from  England  highly  recom- 
mended to  teach  science  in  Harvard  University,  the  apex  of 
education  and  learning  in  the  new  world  at  that  time.  He 
left  his  imprint  himself  in  scholastic  works  on  logic  and 
physics.  There  are  several  copies  of  the  latter  in  manu- 
script, copied  according  to  the  fashion  then  by  the  boys  and 
young  men  before  him,  besides  the  printed  form.277  In 
addition  to  these  he  preached  a  very  profound  sermon — still 
for  inspection  to-day.278 

Here  we  have  him  at  his  best  because  he  is  uttering  after 
the  most  prayerful  and  fullest  meditation  and  investigation. 
He  is  a  voice  as  he  thinks  for  the  great  Ruler  of  the  Uni- 
verse. His  whole  soul  is  absorbed  in  the  search  for  truth. 
This  contains  the  spirit  of  his  scientific  conceptions,  and 
through  him  we  can  see  the  greatest  height  attained  by 
science  in  his  day. 

He  gets  his  text  from  Jeremiah,  eighth  chapter,  seventh 
verse;  the  stork  in  the  heavens  knoweth  her  appointed 

179  Eggleston,  Transit,  page  16,  relying  on  Sewall's  Diary,  Vol.  2, 
page  493. 

m  Compendium  Physicae,  1687 ;  Philosophia  Naturalis,  1707;  both 
in  Harvard  University. 

478  Harleian  Miscellany,  Vol.  5,  pages  498-511. 


Science.  189 

times,  etc'  The  migration  of  birds  had  been  a  great  mystery 
for  the  ages  past  and  now  this  minister  of  the  gospel  is  go- 
ing to  make  the  whole  matter  as  clear  as  the  noonday  sun. 
What  becomes  of  them  when  they  go  away  from  New  Eng- 
land, that  is  what  he  wanted  to  find  out.  They  go  to  the 
moon,  "the  nearest  concrete  heterogeneous  or  earthly  body 
of  the  planets,"  but  that  was  some  distance  to  fly,  some  200,- 
ooo  miles  he  remembered.  But  a  race  horse  can  easily  cover 
a  mile  in  five  minutes  when  he  is  hindered  by  his  weight  and 
the  air,  but  a  bird  is  not  embarrassed  by  either  as  he  weighs 
nothing  and  the  air  is  no  obstruction.  He  could  on  his 
wings  make  125  miles  an  hour,  3,000  a  day,  180,000  in  two 
months.  There  it  is  all  before  you,  two  months  going,  four 
months  remaining,  two  months  returning,  four  months  stay- 
ing here,  twelve  months  in  all.  But  here  is  a  difficulty  that 
comes  up,  the  moon  is  flying  around  the  earth  in  one  month, 
200,000  miles  away.  Would  the  bird  not  lose  time  in  racing 
around  after  the  moon  ?  No,  the  bird  is  guided  by  instinct, 
he  sets  his  gaze  on  the  moon  at  a  certain  point  in  space,  and 
he  goes  straight  there  utterly  regardless  of  the  whirling  mo- 
tion of  the  moon.  In  one  month  the  moon  is  back  there 
again,  in  two  months  the  birds  light  on  it.  No  railroad 
man  could  fix  up  a  better  time  table  than  Morton  did  for 
these  birds. 

Here  another  doubt  seems  to  rise  in  his  mind  as  some 
people  might  be  very  skeptical  as  to  whether  a  bird  could 
fly  at  such  speed  for  two  months.  Well,  then,  says  our 
pastor,  how  do  you  know  that  there  are  not  some  little 
moons  or  other  bodies  floating  between  the  two  that  birds 
could  roost  on  and  take  a  rest?  There  certainly  are  such 
rocky  islands  in  the  ocean  that  we  know  are  used  for  such 
a  purpose,  and  there  may  be  corresponding  "globules  or 
ethereal  islands"  between  us  and  the  moon.  Finally,  he 
winds  up  very  lamely  for  a  thorough  going  logician,  they 
must  come  from  somewhere,  you  unbelievers  don't  think 


190  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

they  come  from  the  moon,  I  know  they  don't  come  from  the 
bottoms  of  the  streams,  therefore  these  half-way  houses 
fill  the  bill. 

There  had  been  quite  a  widely  accepted  theory  that  these 
feathered  prodigies  on  the  approach  of  cold  weather  plunged 
into  the  rivers  and  streams  and  hibernated  at  the  bottom 
until  the  next  spring,  but  Morton  hung  back  from  that  so- 
lution because  he  thought  it  would  be  rather  cold  sleeping 
quarters  down  there  and  furthermore  the  wings  would  be 
too  wet  for  them  to  fly  after  this  prolonged  bath. 

In  his  college  textbook  he  was  just  as  ignorant  and  fool- 
ish, and  he  tried  to  lighten  the  sapiency  of  his  lectures  by 
scraps  of  poetry,  altogether  original  it  is  to  be  judged, 
which  might  help  to  impress  the  explanation.  He  attempted 
to  expound  why  the  Indian  monsoon  changed  its  direction. 
These  currents  of  air  streaming  northward  strike  against 
high  mountains  or  vast  clouds  and  are  thrown  back  and 
hence  the  rest  of  the  year  the  winds  blow  in  the  opposite  di- 
rection. He  is  so  satisfied  with  this  that  he  puts  it  into  verse. 
"From  breize,  streams  clouds  the  monsoons  are  North  East 
From  the  Atlantick  vapors  South  and  West." 

His  explanation  of  earthquakes  is  almost  physiological. 
They  come  from  the  choking  up  of  wind  below  fermenting, 
bursting  out,  causing  "tremblings"  and  "strokes."    He  puts 
it  more  forcibly  but  not  so  elegantly: 
"In  subterraneous  caverns  winds  do  frolick 
When  mother  earth  is  troubled  with  the  colick." 

But  through  it  all  he  is  true  to  the  medieval  notion  that 
all  knowledge  is  from  the  Bible.  In  his  last  chapter  on  the 
world  he  says : 

"The  end  of  the  world  is  twofold:  primary  and  second- 
ary. Primary:  God's  glory  *  *  *  his  eternal  power 
and  godhead.  Rom.  i  :2O.  Secondary  is  the  use  of  man 
(Gen.  1:2:8)  have  dominion  over  it  and  verse  29,  behold 
I  have  given  every  herb,  etc. 


Science.  191 

"World's  matter  aggregate;   from  order  is 
Maker  God,  End,  his  glory  and  man's  bliss." 

As  the  van  of  American  science  teachers  the  table  of 
contents  of  his  ambitious  production  will  help  to  illuminate 
his  general  grasp  and  conception. 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  OF  1687  MANUSCRIPT  COPY  BY 
BRATTLE. 

Chapt.  Index  totius  hujus  libri 
Preface  to  the  book 

1  Of  Physicks  in  General 

2  Of  the  general  Part  of  Physicks 

3  Of  the  Affections  of  Naturall  Body  in  generall 

4  Of  the  Speciall  part  of  physicks 

5  Of  Heavens  in  speciall 

6  Of  Terrestrial  body,  of  the  elements  in  Generall 

7  Of  the  Elements  in  Special  and  first  of  fire 

8  Of  Air 

9  Of  Water 

10  Of  earth 

11  Of  mixed  body  in  generall  and  its  affections 

12  Of  the  species  of  mixed  bodies  and  fiery  meteors 

13  Of  comets 

14  Of  aery  meteors 

15  Of  watery  meteors 

16  Of  appearing  meteors 

17  Of  perfectly  mixed  bodies  and  first  of  stone 

18  Of  metalls  and  mineralls 

19  Of  animate  bodies  in  generall  and  speciall 

20  Of  the  growing  faculty 

21  Of  procreation 

22  Of  sensitive  living  bodies 

23  Of  seeing 

24  Of  hearing 


192  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

25  Of  smelling  taste  and  touch 

26  Of  interior  senses 

27  Of  sensative  appetite 
28  Of  locomotion 

29  Of  secondary  affections,  awake  and  asleep 

30  Of  the  soecies  of  animal  brute  and  man 

31  Of  the  world 

ABRAHAM  PIERSON. 

There  is  another  relic  of  these  times,  older  than  Morton's 
teachings  that  are  even  more  valuable  as  a  witness  for  the 
school  work  in  science.  Abraham  Pierson,  a  Harvard  grad- 
uate in  1668,  afterwards  the  first  president  of  Yale  College, 
was  very  industrious  with  his  pencil  in  taking  notes.  His 
descendants  had  the  historical  spirit  and  it  is  to  this  lucky 
fact  that  we  can  to-day  go  through  Pierson's  notes  which 
he  afterwards  used  as  a  teacher  at  Yale.  This  little  book 
of  less  than  two  hundred  pages,  partly  Latin  and  partly 
English,  and  largely  abbreviated  in  both  languages,  in  a 
torturous  scrawl,  epitomizes  for  us  the  scientific  instruction 
as  well  as  other  branches  in  both  of  these  great  institutions. 
Along  towards  the  middle  of  it  he  has  what  he  himself 
dubs  "Compendium  Philosophiae  Naturalis"  composed  of 
a  series  of  160  propositions,  and  virtually  definitions  of 
such  terms  as  affinity,  motion,  porosity,  air,  water,  savor, 
odor,  color,  species,  senses.  Interspersed  with  these  are 
statements  to  be  proved.  The  following  will  give  some  ink- 
ling of  the  tone  of  the  whole:  First,  the  world  is  neither 
from  eternity  nor  able  to  be  of  itself,  but  is  a  round  body 
the  most  capacious  of  all  figures  sent  forth  perfect.  Sec- 
ond, angels  are  a  spirit,  not  made  of  one  of  the  elements, 
but  of  rare  medium,  endowed  with  reason  and  will,  and  min- 
isters of  God,  having  always  existed  from  the  beginning, 
of  least  materiality  but  of  many  forms. 


Science  193 

GRAVESANDE  AND  ROHAUI/T. 

Another  authority  of  the  day  was  William  James  Grave- 
sande  with  his  "mathematical  elements  of  natural  philosophy 
confirmed  by  experiments  or  an  introduction  to  Sir  Isaac 
Newton's  Philosophy."279  Although  he  claims  to  be  a  sort 
of  introduction  to  one  of  the  great  lights  of  modern  science 
for  the  world  he  was  fairly  drenched  in  metaphysical  and 
religious  clouds.  Holy  writ  he  declares  is  the  whole  thing 
in  a  nutshell,  and  reason  so  perfectly  agrees  with  these  di- 
vine utterances  that  the  least  examination  will  show  the 
plain  fact  of  supreme  wisdom.  The  whole  thing  was  cre- 
ated by  God,  and  we  should  not  try  to  go  down  to  the  first 
foundations  of  things  nor  should  we  have  an  immoderate 
appetite  for  knowledge  because  such  greediness  has  led 
people  into  serious  errors.  There  are  to  be  no  such  gaps 
and  breaks  in  the  road  he  marks  out,  for  the  unwary  to  fall 
into,  as  he  fills  up  the  balance  of  his  two  volumes  with  very 
formal  directions,  rule  of  thumb  measurements  for  the  many 
experiments  that  are  attended  by  diagrams  and  intricate 
drawings.  No  thoughtful  application  of  principles,  no  logi- 
cal connection  between  reason  and  development  of  the  ex- 
periment, though  he  himself  did  seem  to  have  some  depth 
of  philosophy  in  him.  We  can  almost  believe  that  he  rather 
dimly  understood  that  heat  and  light  were  modes  of  motion. 
But  he  was  very  timid  about  getting  beyond  his  own  relig- 
ious limitations  because  he  draws  himself  back  from  this 
venturesome  deduction  in  the  next  breath  as  he  says  the 
"notion  of  light  has  something  unknown  to  us."280  He  is 
not  so  far  wrong  also  on  the  chemistry  of  combustion  but 
apparently  suffers  from  the  same  nervousness  of  drifting 

m  Originally  in  Latin,  put  into  English,  3d  edition,  London,  1738, 
2  volumes,  8vo,  copy  in  Congressional  Library. 

280  W.  J.  Gravesande,  Vol.  2,  page  16,  Math.  Elements  of  Natural 
Philosophy. 

13 


194  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

beyond  the  borderland  of  ecclesiastics.  He  declares  that  the 
"burning  of  bodies  is  a  separation  of  their  parts  by  the 
mutual  action  of  the  fire  and  those  parts  on  each  other.281 
So  far  as  the  mere  extent  of  his  treatise  goes,  it  coincides 
most  astonishingly  with  elementary  physics  to-day  but  the 
spirit  is  so  diametrical  to  the  modern  one  and  besides,  in 
unison  with  his  contemporaries  he  mixes  his  mathematics, 
astronomy,  geography,  and  something  of  natural  history. 

Rohault,  a  Frenchman,  follower  of  DesCartes,  had  pre- 
ceded Gravesande  at  Yale,  having  been  put  into  Latin  by 
Samuel  Clarke.282  He  succeeded  Pierson's  manuscript 
notes.  We  thus  have  the  science  authorities  for  Yale  from 
her  beginning  down  to  the  end  of  the  colonial  period,  Pier- 
son,  Rohault,  Gravesande,  Enfield.  Rohault  like  Gravesande 
has  a  number  of  figures,  folded  at  the  end  of  the  volume,  like 
him  he  also  ranges  over  physics,  geography,  astronomy, 
meteorology,  and  biology. 

The  three  are  substantially  along  the  same  general  road 
and  all  practically  guided  by  the  same  conception  of  science. 
Metaphysics  and  religion  rule.  The  first  physical  theses  at 
Harvard  indicate  the  same  drift  of  science. 

Forma  est  accidens. 
The  form  is  accidental. 
Quicquid  movetur  ab  alio  movetur. 
Whatever  is  moved  is  moved  by  something  else. 
Nihil  agit  in  seipsum. 
Nothing  acts  upon  itself. 
In  uno  corpore  non  sunt  plures  animae. 
In  one  body  are  not  many  souls. 
Phantasia  producit  reales  effectus. 
An  appearance  makes  real  effects. 

ai  W.  J.  Gravesande,  Vol.  2,  page  15,  Math.  Elements  of  Natural 
Philosophy. 
**  London,  1718,  8vo. 


Science.  195 

Harvard,  Yale,  and  all  the  other  institutions  that  had 
science  labored  under  the  thralldom  of  an  unhappy  influ- 
ence. Towards  the  latter  end  of  the  colonial  period  there 
are  signs  that  earnest  teachers  and  thinkers  were  breaking 
out  of  these  mists  that  had  clung  around  the  schools  for  ages 
but  for  the  bulk  of  this  study  science  was  more  metaphysi- 
cal than  mathematical.288 

Yet  there  was  activity,  there  was  observation.  Very  early 
in  the  life  of  Massachusetts  a  philosophical  society  had  been 
formed  to  meet  fortnightly  to  advance  the  cause  of  natural 
philosophy  and  to  gather  specimens  of  natural  history. 
Most  remarkable  of  all,  considering  his  attitude  towards 
comets,  Increase  Mather  had  been  the  organizer  of  this 
body,  and  some  of  the  collections  they  made  were  sent  to 
museums  in  Europe.  There  had  also  been  gifts  of  mathe- 
matical and  scientific  books,  Benjamin  Franklin  having  do- 
nated some  instruments  to  Harvard. 

PHYSICAL  APPARATUS. 

In  all  the  branches  of  education  dealing  with  man  we 
have  books,  lectures,  reminiscences,  but  when  it  comes  to 
science  we  have  these  and  one  additional  piece  of  testimony, 
a  very  material  one,  the  laboratory  equipment.  This  does 
not  mean  that  we  know  what  use  was  made  of  balances, 
mirrors,  and  machine  generally,  but  we  know  how  service- 
able all  such  helps  are  to-day  and  how  accurately  they  gauge 
the  standard  in  our  institutions. 

APPARATUS  AT  HARVARD. 

At  the  oldest  institution  in  America  we  also  find  the  long- 
est lists  of  apparatus  for  the  study  of  science  in  the  earlier 
times.  The  Harvard  Archives  do  not  go  back  with  any  ful- 
ness farther  than  1731  though  of  course  we  know  that  there 

183  F.  Cajori,  Teaching  and  History  of  Mathematics,  page  29. 


196  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

were  physical  aids  used  in  scientific  teaching  before  that 
time.  But  the  following  rather  numerous  items  will  serve 
as  a  basis  for  deductions  as  to  scientific  work  there,  due 
to  the  generosity  of  Hollis  who  founded  the  chair  of  mathe- 
matics and  science:284 

A  catalogue  of  the  mathematical  and  phylosophical  instru- 
ments, belonging  to  the  apparatus,  given  to  Harvard  Col- 
lege by  Mr.  Thomas  Hollis  of  London,  merchant,  with 
price  sterling. 

Mechanicks. 

1.  A  strong  ballance  and  stool  for  measuring  the 

the  force  of  falling  bodies, £2-  5 

2.  The  double  cone  and  brass  rules, o  rj 

3.  A  sett  of  bodies  for  experiments  of  the  falling 

and  rolling  of  bodies ;  also  a  small  ballance 
for  experiment  of  the  center  of  gravity, 
with  a  support  for  Ballance, 1-5 

4.  A  Ballance  with  its  weights,  false  scales  and 

pedastal,    5-  5 

5.  An  instrument  for  estimating  oblique  powers 

in  the  axis  in  Peritrochio, i- 

6  Apparatus  for  explaining  the  three  kinds  of 

Levers,  with  a  sett  of  compound  levers,  .  .  1-2 

7.  Apparatus  for  explaining  the  pulleys, 3-10 

8.  Apparatus  for  the  wedge, 5-10 

9.  A  compound  Engine, 5-5 

10.  Apparatus    for    experiments    of    centrifugal 

force,  together  with  apparatus  for  experi- 
ments of  light  and  electricity  with  solid 
glass  cylinders, , 8- 


^34-15 


1  College  Book,  No.  6,  Hollis,  pages  20-22. 


Science  197 
Optics. 

1.  A  large  concave "1  £02-10-0 

2.  A  small  convex  Lmirrors,    00-12-6 

3.  A  concave  cylindrical  J  oi-io-o 
5.  An  instrument  for  showing  that  the  lines  of 

the  angles  of  Incidence  and  refraction 

bear  a  constant  proportion  to  each  other,  i-io-o 

5.  Apparatus  for  experiments  of  light  and  col- 

ors,   S^S-0 

6.  A  portable  camera  obscura, 1-05-0 

7.  A  cylinder  and  picture,  2-10-0 

8.  A  small  telescope  with  a  concave  eye-glass,  0-01-6 

9.  A  single  concave,  a  double  concave,  and  a 

miniscus  glass,  also  multiplying  glass,  .  .  o-io-o 


£14-14-6 
Hydrostaticks. 

1.  A  large  stool  Ballance  with  a  counterpoise 

to  one  scale,  a  pillar  for  supporting  it  a 
large  glass  jarr,  a  Ballance  for  weighing 
levity,  with  all  the  particulars  expressed 
in  Hyd.  Plate  i,  £8-0-0 

2.  A  sett  of  Troy  weights  64  oz.,  with  Penny 

weights  and  Grains, oo-i  i-o 

A  box  with  lock  and  Hinges  for  the  scales,     00-07-6 

3.  Apparatus  for  the  grand  Hydrostatical  ex- 

periment,         02-02-0 

4.  Three  legg'd  syphon,  with  two  syphons,  .  . .     00-12-0 

5.  A  glass  with  hydrostatical  Images, oi-oi-o 

6.  An  hydrostatical  Ballance,   01-05-0 

7.  A  model  of  a  sucking  pump  in  glass, 00-15-0 

Hydrostatics  PI.  2,  Fig.  2, 00-03-0 

8.  An  areometer,   oo-oi-o 

£14-17-6 


198  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Pneumaticks. 

1.  Two  setts  of  Tubes  for  Torricellian  experi- 

ments,       £01-05-0 

2.  A  frame  for  supporting  them,   00-07-6 

3.  Apparatus  for  Mons.  Auzout's  experiment,  01-05-0 

4.  A  large  double  air  pump  with  its  apparatus,  26-05-0 

5.  A  Tube  in  a  screw  for  experiment  against 

suction,     00-02-6 

6.  Apparatus  for  the  lifting  of  weights  by  the 

spring  of  air,  contained  in  a  bladder,  .  .  oi-io-o 

7.  A  bottle  for  weighing  the  air,  with  a  bent 

pipe  for  exhausting  the  bottle, 00-17-6 

8.  Capillary  Tubes  and   Glass  plains   for  the 

ascent  of  fluids,   00-05-0 

9.  A  pair  of  brass  plains, oi-oi-o 

10.  Apparatus  for  the  Hemispheres,    04-10-0 

11.  A  syringe  for  the  compression  of  the  air,  . .  oi-io-o 

12.  A  portable  Barometer, 01-05-0 

13.  A  Thermometer,   00-15-0 

14.  Six  vials  in  caps,  00-09-0 

15.  48  ditto  without  caps, 00-08-0 

16.  A  small  bowl  fountain, oo-oi-o 

17.  A  Diving  Bell, 00-02-0 


£41-18-6 
Miscellanies. 

1.  12  Lbs.  of  Quicksilver,  £03-06-0 

2.  12  Glass  Tubes  of  different  Bores, ...  00-12-0 

3.  A  Loadstone, 02-12-0 

4.  Solid   Phosphones,    00-05-0 

5.  12  Doz.  of  Granade  Drops, 00-03-0 

6.  6  Doz.  of  the  Lacryme  vitrol, 00-02-0 

7.  Cement  and  Ladles,  00-04-6 

8.  An  hand  vice,   00-03-6 


Science.  199 

9.  Two  spare  double  screws, 00-02-0 

10.  A   duplicate  of  the   Gunpowder  Glass   un- 

fixed,   .  00-04-0 

11.  Tube  for  Rec.  Pneu,  p.  2,  fig.  2, 00-01-6 


£7-15-6 

Cambridge,  September  6,  1731. 

The  particulars  of  the  foregoing  Catlogue,  the  generous 
benefaction  of  Mr.  Hollis  to  Harvard  College,  I  acknowl- 
edge to  be  now  in  my  sole  custody  at  Mr.  Hollis's  chambers 
for  the  use  of  such  as  are  his  students  and  Subscribers  to 
the  Hollisian  Lectures.  ISAAC  GREENWOOD. 

INVENTORY  SEVEN  YEARS  LATER. 

As  the  foundation  for  laboratory  teaching  of  science  in 
America  it  is  a  just  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Hollis 
to  give  the  above  in  full  although  college  records  in  1738 
repeat  that,  with  the  important  addition  of  the  apparatus 
already  at  Harvard  before  the  goodness  of  Hollis  had  sent 
a  large  collection  across  the  Atlantic.  The  following  one 
is  therefore  of  interest  as  showing  the  reliance  Professor 
Greenwood  placed  upon  Hawkins:285 

A  catalogue  of  the  Mathematical  and  Mechanical  instru- 
ments belonging  to  the  apparatus  both  such  as  were  given 
to  Harvard  College  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hollis  of  London, 
Merchant,  and  such  as  before  belonged  to  the  college, 
which  catlogue  was  taken  April  ip,  1738.  Vid  pag.  20. 

The  numbers  here  mentioned  refer  to  those  on  page  20. 
The  plates  and  figures  mentioned  are  those  in  Hawkins's 
Mechanics,  Optics,  Hydrostatics,  etc. 
i.  A  strong  Ballance  with  a  stool,  square  leaden  weights 

*"  College  Book,  No.  6,  Hollis,  pages  35-38. 


2OO  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

and  perforated  brass  ball  for  measuring  the  force  of 
falling  bodies.  As.  Plate  I.  Fig.  2.  Mechan. 

2.  A  double  cone  and  brass  rules.     PI.  I.     Fig.  5. 

3.  A  set  of  bodies  for  experiments  of  falling  and  rolling 

of  bodies,  consisting  of  three  short  Prisms  of  Brass, 
i,  Octang.,  2,  Hexang.,  3,  Quinqang.,  and  a  brass 
Rhombus.  Plat.  i.  Fig.  3  and  4.  The  triangular  fig. 
3  wanting.  Also  a  smaller  balla  with  one  brass  sup- 
porter for  the  Ballance.  Also  four  brass  balls  upon 
an  iron  wire. 

4.  A  Ballance  with  its  false  scales  and  weights,  viz:  bul- 

lets hung  with  brasses  and  pedestal  also  a  false  beam 
with  scales.  Plat.  i.  Fig.  6,  7,  8,  and  PI.  2.  Fig.  i 

5.  An  instrument  for  estimating  oblique  powers  with  axis 

in  Peritrochio,  to  be  fixed  into  the  Pedestal.  PI.  i. 
Fig.  6. 

6.  Apparatus  for  explaining  the  three  kinds  of  Levers  con- 

sisting of  one  1 8  inch  brass  rule,  a  small  brass  pul- 
ley, and  four  brass  Balls.  Plat.  2,  fig.  5,  6,  7  and  9. 

7.  Apparatus  for  explaining  the  Pulleys,  consisting  of  a 

pulley.  PI.  3,  fig.  i.  Also  two  treble  pulleys,  each 
one  on  a  different  axis,  PI.  3,  fig.  6,  and  two  treble 
pulleys  move  three  upon  one  axis.  PI.  3,  fig.  7. 

8.  Apparatus  for  the  Wedge,  being  the  Fig.  5  in  PI.  4. 

9.  A  compound  Engine  with  all  the  parts  described.     PI. 

5-    Fig-  I- 

io.  Apparatus  of  experiments  of  centrifugal  force,  together 
with  the  apparatus  for  experiments  of  Light  and  elec- 
tricity with  a  solid  glass  cylinder,  all  represented. 
Plat.  5.  Fig.  6.  Also  Pneumat.  PI.  6,  in  all  the 
figures  of  it. 


Optics. 


1.  A  large  concave. 

2.  A  small  convex. 


Science  201 

3.  A  concave  cylindrical. 
Mirrors. 

4.  An  instrument  for  showing  that  the  lines  of  the  angles 

of  incidence  and  refraction  bear  a  constant  propor- 
to  each  other.     Plate  2.     Fig.  2. 

5.  Apparatus  for  the  Experiment  of  light  and  coleur,  con- 

sisting of  one  large  double  convex  lens,  of  7  or  8 
inches  diameter  and  about  2  foot  focus,  with  its 
handle  loose.  Another  ditto  of  about  8  feet  focus. 
Two  triangular  glass  prisms,  one  oblong  brass  plate 
with  a  circular  one  fastened  to  it,  moving  on  a 
centre.  Two  square  boards  to  receive  images  upon. 
A  pedestal  with  a  crotch  of  wood  fastened  on  the 
top  of  a  strong  wire  or  rod,  on  which  to  hang  the 
glass  prisms.  Two  other  pedestals  which  also  are 
common  to  some  other  experiments. 

6.  A  portable  camera  obscura  very  much  broken. 

7.  A  cylinder  and  picture  as  represented.     PI.  I.     Fig.  8. 

8.  A  small  telescope  or  rather  perspective  with  a  concave 

eye-glass.     The  eye-glass  loose. 

9.  A  double  concave.    A  miniscus  and  a  multiplying  glass 

and  a  blue  pair  of  spectacles.  Mem0  ye  simple  con- 
cave wanting. 

Hydrostatics. 

I.  A  large  steele  Ball1  with  a  counterpoise  to  one  scale 
and  Pillar  for  supporting  it,  with  a  large  glass  jarr 
with  a  glass  vessel  with  a  lock.  Also  a  Ballance  for 
weighing  levity,  as  it  is  represented  in  fig.  i,  PI.  I. 
Also  all  the  particulars  expressed  in  sd  plate. 

2.  A  set  of  Troy  weights  64  oz.   with  penny  wts.  and 

grains.  Also  a  box  with  lock  and  hinges  for  the 
scales. 

3.  Apparatus  for  the  grand  hydrostatical  experiment  con- 

sisting of  one  flat  seat  (?)  with  a  strong  wire  in  it 


202  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

and  severall  jarrs  and  glasses  hereafter  mention'd 
and  number'd. 

4.  A  three-legg'd  Syphon  with  two  others. 

5.  A  glass  with  hydrostatical  images,  the  images  much 

broken.     Plat.  2.     Fig.   14. 

6.  An  hydrostatical  Ballance.     PI.  3.    Fig.  5. 

7.  A  model  of  the  sucking  pump  in  Glass.    PI.  3.    Fig.  2. 
The  instrument  described.     PI.  2.     Fig.  2. 

8.  An  Areometer. 

9.  Four  hydrostatic  jars  referred  to  in  No.  3  above  and 

one  thick  low  jarr  or  Glass  bason. 

Pneumatics. 

1.  Two  setts  of  Tubes  for  Torricellian  and  other  experi- 

ments, viz:  thirty-one  in  number  and  most  of  them 
whole. 

2.  The  frame  for  supporting  them  unknown. 

3.  Apparatus  for  Monsieur  Auzout's  experiment.     PI.  I. 

Fig.  6. 

4.  A  large  double  Air  Pump  with  its  apparatus  as  de- 

scribed.   PI.  2.    Fig.  i.     (?) 

5.  A  tube  in  a  brass  screw  for  experiment  against  suction. 

Plat.  2.    Fig.  4. 

6.  Apparatus  for  the  lifting  of  weights  by  the  spring  of  the 

air  contained  in  a  bladder,  consisting  of  low  wooden 
cylinder  with  a  bottom  and  one  round  flat  leaden 
weight  with  a  strong  perpendicular  wire  in  the 
centre,  and  several  other  weights,  the  glass  being 
broken.  This  is  represented.  PI.  5.  Fig.  7. 

7.  A  bottle  for  weighing  the  air  with  a  bent  pipe  for  ex- 

hausting the  bottle. 

8.  Capillary   Tubes   and   glass   plains,   for  the   ascent  of 

Fluids. 

9.  A  pair  of  brass  plains.    PI.  5.     Fig.  6. 


Science.  203 

10.  Apparatus  for  the  hemispheres.     PL  5.     Fig.  i. 

11.  A  syringe  for  the  compression  of  the  air.   PI.  i.  Fig.  n. 

12.  A  portable  barometer. 

13.  A  Thermometer. 

14.  Six  vials  in  caps.     Some  of  these  broken  in  experi- 
ments. 

16.  A  small  bowl  fountain.     This  received  broken. 

17.  A  diving  bell. 

Miscellaneous. 

1.  Twelve  pounds  of  mercury. 

2.  Twelve  glass  Tubes  of  different  bores  taken  notice  of 

in  No.  i,  Pneumatics. 

3.  One  loadstone  cap'd  with  silver. 

4.  A  solid  phosphorus — all  consumed  in  experiments  sev- 

eral years  ago. 

5.  Twelve  dozen  of  Granade  Drops,  all  broken,  9  dozen 

of  which  broken  in  bringing  to  us. 

6.  Six  doz.  of  Lachrymee  Vitrol,  few  bro't  whole. 

7.  Cement  and  Ladles. 

8.  An  hand-vice. 

9.  Unknown  what  they  are. 

10.  A  duplicate  gunpowder-glass,  unfix'd,  one  broken.     PI. 

2.    Fig.  3. 

11.  Tube  for  a  pneumatic  receiver.     PI.  2.    Fig.  2. 

12.  A  newly  contriv'd  steelyard  all  as  described.   Pneum. 

PI.  5.    Fig.  3,  4  and  5. 

13.  A  Transferron   being  one  of  those   plates   described. 

Plate  4,  pneumat.,  fig.  3. 

These  three  things  were  sent  by  Mr.  Hollis,  Mercht.  in 
London,  nephew  to  our  worthy  benefactor.  At  another 
time,  Vide  p.  29: 

1.  An  orrery  with  its  case. 

2.  An  Auxiliary  sphere  with  its  case. 

3.  A  large  microscope,  Wilson's. 


204  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Such  as  here  follow  were  put  into  the 

1.  Apparatus  from  the  library. 

2.  The  24  feet  Telescope. 

3.  The  8  feet  Telescope. 

4.  A  box  of  microscopes,  eight  glasses. 

5.  Surveying  instruments,  viz :   a  semicircle,  a  triangle  and 

a  chain. 

6.  An  astronomical  quadrant  of  more  than  two  feet  radius. 

Cambr.,  April  19,  1738. 

The  particulars  of  the  foregoing  catalogue,  most  of  which 
were  sent  us  by  our  generous  benefactor,  Mr.  Thomas 
Hollis,  the  rest  put  into  the  apparatus  chamber  from 
the  College  Library.  I  acknowledge  I  have  this  day  received 
from  the  Revd  the  corporation  of  Harvard  College,  to 
be  us'd  in  experiments,  Mechanical,  Mathematical  and  Phil- 
osophical, for  the  service  of  the  scholars  of  the  said  college, 
for  every  of  which  instruments  aforementioned  I  acknowl- 
edge myself  accountable  to  them  the  said  corporation  and 
hereby  declare  myself  obliged  to  restore  them  upon  their 
demand.  ISAAC  GREENWOOD. 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THOMAS  HOLUS. 

There  is  in  the  same  manuscript  repository  a  letter  from 
this  first  prominent  promoter  of  scientific  study  in  America, 
enumerating  some  instruments  that  he  had  sent  and  also 
stating  his  purpose  in  making  this  endowment — "The  ad- 
vancement of  natural  and  revealed  religion."  This  extract 
deserves  the  space  here  below  for  the  light  it  throws  upon 
the  philanthropy  of  Hollis  and  upon  the  scientific  notions  of 
the  day.286 

Extract  out  of  a  letter  of  Mr.  Thomas  Hollis,  of  London, 
to  Col.  Hutchinson,  Treasurer  of  Harvard  College. 
Dated  July  20,  1732,  viz: 

^College   Book,   No.    6,    Hollis,   page    29. 


Science.  205 

"Inclosed  I  send  you  a  bill  of  Lading  for  two  cases.  No. 
T.  H.  i.  2.  shipt  in  the  Union.  John  Romans;  the  one 
contains  a  sphere,  the  other  a  new  invented  Engine  or  ma- 
cheen  called  an  orrery,  showing  the  daily  and  annual  mo- 
tion of  the  sun,  earth  and  moon.  I  have  also  delivered  the 
Captain  a  small  shagreen  case  with  a  double  microscope  and 
its  utensils,  which  upon  receipt  I  desire  you  to  present,  with 
my  humble  service  to  the  corporation  for  the  use  of  the  col- 
lege. I  hope  Mr.  Professor  Greenwood  will  make  good  use 
of  each,  for  the  promoting  useful  knowledge  and  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  natural  and  revealed  Religion." 

APPARATUS  IN  1764. 

It  was  nearly  a  third  of  a  century  after  Hollis  penned 
these  sentiments  that  we  have  another  itemized  description 
of  the  apparatus  at  Harvard  in  the  enumeration  of  the  loss 
suffered  in  the  great  fire  then.  As  this  has  all  been  pub- 
lished in  full,288  it  hardly  seems  necessary  to  repeat  it  here 
further  than  the  following  general  sample : 

Long  list  of  apparatus  burnt  1764,  two  globes ;  apparatus 
for  mechanics,  as  levers,"  "balances,"  "compound  engines," 
etc. 

In  hydrostatics,  jars,  glass  models  of  pumps,  for  "hydro- 
static paradox,"  etc. 

In  pneumatics,  for  "Torricellian  experiment,"  syringes, 
barometers,  thermometers,  etc. 

In  optics,  mirrors,  lenses,  prisms,  camera  obscura,  etc. 

Also  orrery,  microscopes,  telescopes  24  feet  long,  quadrant 
of  two  feet  radius,  surveying  instruments,  "a  curious  tele- 
scope *  *  *  for  *  *  *  difference  of  level." 
Compass  and  dipping  needle,  instruments  for  "magnetical 
and  electrical  experiments." 

287  J.  Quincy,  Hist.  Har.,  Vol.  2,  page  482. 


206  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

APPARATUS  IN  1779. 

Some  fifteen  years  later  the  ravages  of  this  destruction 
and  conflagration  had  been  largely  repaired  if  we  are  to 
judge  from  the  inventory  below.289 

An  Inventory  of  the  apparatus  of  Harvard  College  as  found 
therein  by  the  Committee  appointed  n  May  1779  for 
carrying  on  Mathematical  and  Philosophical  Instruction 
at  the  time  they  took  possession  of  the  Key  by  order  of 
the  Corporation.  May  2Oth,  1779. 

Class  i.     Altitude  i. 

1.  A  cylindrical  weight  to  be  used  with  the  inclined 

plane. 

2.  A  loaded  mahogany  cylinder  for  D°. 

3.  An  inclined  Plane. 

4.  A  wooden  Spheroid. 

5.  A  Tin  do. 

6.  Two  wax  do. 

7.  Two  leaden  balls  for  pendulums. 

8.  A  brass  stand  for  a  Pully. 

9.  An  iron  circle. 

10.  A  Brass  do. 

11.  A  machine  containing  the  various   combinations  of 

pullies  with  their  weights. 

12.  A  pine  box,  containing  one  cork,  two  boxwood,  three 

ivory,  and  three  brass  balls,  fifteen  brass  cylindric 
weights  and  two  wooden  cylinders. 

13.  A  mahogany  box  containing  a  small  glass  jar,  and  a 

brass  stand,  together  with  a  circular  brass  plate  in 
a  shagreen  case  for  hydrostatic  experiments. 

14.  A  fountain  for  compressed  air,  with  spouts,  syringes 

and  other  appendages. 

15.  Hydrostatic  bellows. 

888  College  Book  No.  6,  Hollis,  last  part. 


Science  207 

1 6.  A  graduated  semicircle  for  the  hydraulic  machine. 

17.  Four  small  square  copper  plates. 

18.  Six  square  and  three  round  small  steel  bars. 

19.  Four  coils  of  iron,  and  five  D°  of  brass  wire,  with 

six  remnants  of  brass. 

20.  Five  small  oblong  brass  plates. 

21.  A  loaded  pine  cylinder. 

22.  Two  catgut  wheelbands. 

23.  A  brass  chain  for  surveying. 

Alt.  II. 

1.  A  glass  model  of  a  sucking  pump. 

2.  A  glass  model  of  a  diving  bell. 

3.  A  glass  tube   mounted  for  a  water-level. 

4.  Fourteen  glass  jars  of  different  magnitudes  for  hydro- 

static experiments. 

5.  A  glass  bubble  for  specific  gravities. 

6.  Tantalus'  cup. 

7.  Two  brass  ballances. 

8.  A  waxen  cylinder. 

9.  A  small  tin  cup. 

10.  A  glass  syphon  for  the  Hydrostatic  Paradox. 

n.  Six  glass  syphons  of  different  shapes  and  lengths. 

12.  Four  glass  tubes  with  brass  screws  at  their  ends. 

13.  Five  glass  d°  without  screws. 

14.  A  chip  box  containing  six  glass  bubbles. 

15.  D°  containing  six  glass  images  for  the  magical  ex- 

periment. 

16.  D°  containing  five  glass  bubbles. 

17.  A  nest  of  brass  weights. 

1 8.  A  wooden  axis  in  peritrochio. 

19.  A  small  stone  jugg  containing  quicksilver. 

Alt.  III. 

1.  A  brass  steelyard. 

2.  A  rolling  cone  and  stand. 


2o8  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

3.  A  bent  lever. 

4.  A  brass  tip  to  a  stand. 

5.  A  Carman's  lever. 

6.  A    small    brass    stand    to    determine    the    centre    of 

gravity. 

7.  A  combination  of  brass  levers. 

8.  A  machine  for  illustrating  the  wedge. 

9.  A  brass  ballance-beam  with  three  scales. 

10.  A  brass  18  in.  Ruler. 

11.  A  brass  axis  in  peritrochio. 

12.  A  single  wooden  wedge  with  its  apparatus. 

13.  A  brass  screw. 

14.  A  combination  of  the  screw  and  Pulley  (brass). 

15.  Two  rectangular  brass  plates  for  the  whirling  table. 

1 6.  A  small  mahogany  inclined  plane. 

17.  A  combination  of  all  the  mechanic  powers   (brass) 

fitted  to  an  inclin'd  plane. 

1 8.  A  copper  scale. 

Class  2.    Alt.  I. 

1.  Leathers  for  the  air  pump. 

2.  Small  quantity  of  wrapping  paper. 

3.  An  iron  cup. 

4.  A  leaden  weight  with  a  brass  stand  for  determining 

specific  gravities. 

5.  A  large  glass  jarr. 

6.  A  copper  flask  for  determining  the  weight  of  air. 

7.  A  model  of  an  Engine  for  extinguishing  Fires,  the 

outer  tube  broken. 

8.  Three  receivers  for  the  air  pump. 

9.  A  machine  for  shewing  the  expansion  of  air. 

10.  A  machine  for  shewing  the  respective  ratios  of  refrac- 
tion and  reflexion. 
Alt.  II. 

1.  Four  circular  pieces  of  tin. 

2.  A  chip  box,  containing  27  leaden,  and  2  brass  oz. 

weights  for  the  mechanic  powers. 


Science.  209 

3.  D°  containing  5^  oz.  &  4^  oz.  leaden  weights  for  do. 

4.  A  brass  stand  to  hold  2  exhausted  receivers. 

5.  Two  brass  hemispheres  to  shew  the  pressure  of  air. 

6.  A  glass  cup  for  a  barometer. 

7.  Eight  receivers  for  the  air-pump,  of  different  sizes. 

8.  A  Gauge  for  the  air  pump. 

9.  Ten  glass-Tubes   of  different  sizes,   three  of  them 

cap'd  with  brass. 
10.  Two  electric  brass  conductors. 

Alt.  III. 

1.  Four  brass  screws  for  the  fountain. 

2.  A  jelly  glass. 

3.  Thirteen   glass   receivers  of  different  sizes,  one  of 

them  fitted  with  a  bell,  &  two  others  adapted  to 
shew  the  pressure  of  air. 

4.  Two  lung  glasses. 

5.  A  leaden  weight  with  a  brass  syringe  for  shewing  the 

elasticity  of  Air. 

6.  A  small  ballance  with  a  cork  &  a  brass  guinea. 

7.  A  copper  swan  neck  for  a  dust  air. 

8.  A  glass  with  a  leaden  weight  for  specific  gravities. 

Class  III.    Alt.  I. 

1.  A  Camera  obscura. 

2.  A  terrestrial  globe  of  28  inches  diameter. 

3.  A  portable  electric  machine. 

4.  An  electric  battery  consisting  of  15  Jarrs. 

5.  A  Box  conaining  two  glass  plates. 

6.  Two  small  rolls  of  Tin-foil. 

7.  A  box  containing  one  drill  plate,  3  hammers,  a  drill 

vice,  i  Saw,  2  drills,  1 1  small  files,  i  Vice,  I  Screw 
plate,  i  whetstone,  a  file  handle,  a  screw-driver,  a 
pair  of  shears,  and  2  awls. 
14 


2io  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

8.  A  Box  containing  36  prints  for  the  diagonal  glass,  6 

anamorphoses,  a  semi-cylindric  mirror  to  be  used 
with  the  anamorphoses,  and  2  squares  of  window 
glass. 

9.  A  box  containing  12  coated  jarrs  of  different  sizes 

for  an  electric  battery. 

10.  A  box  containing  5  towels. 

11.  An  empty  box. 

12.  A  drill  bow. 

13.  A  piece  of  sheat  lead. 

Class  2.-   In  a  Drawer. 

1.  Two  pair  of  dividers. 

2.  A  skain  of  silken  cord. 

3.  A  brass  sector  in  a  shagreen  case. 

4.  A  diagonal  scale  in  a  shagreen  case. 

5.  Four  wooden  Pins  with  strings  for  pendulums. 

6.  A  large  silken  cord. 

7.  A  small  quantity  of  red  and  green  silken  cord. 

8.  Two  small  pieces  of  green  silken  cord  of  different 

fineness,  and  3  small  pieces  of  silk  ferret. 

9.  Two  small  plane  glass  mirrors. 

10.  Two  wooden  hemispheres. 

11.  A  multiplying  glass. 

12.  One  small  convex,  and  one  small  concave  lens. 

13.  Eighteen  painted  glasses  for  the  magic-lanthorn,  2  of 

them  broken. 

14.  Twelve  painted  sliders  for  the  magic  lanthorn. 

Class  3.     Alt.  II. 

1.  Two  brass  plates  and  a  ring  to  shew  the  pressure  of 

air. 

2.  Fifteen  capillary  tubes. 

3.  A  large  roll  of  sealing-wax  for  electrical  experiments, 

broken. 

4.  Three  small  glass  tubes. 


Science  211 

5.  Eight  larger  D°. 

6.  A  mahogany  box  containing. 

1.  A  chip  box  containing  a  number  of  lenses  of 

different  magnifying  powers. 

2.  A  chip  box  containing  2  prisms,  3  brass  screws, 

&  2  lenses. 

3.  Five  prisms  of  different  sizes,  fitted  with  brass 

caps. 

4.  A  double  prism  with  brass  caps. 

5.  A  brass  plate  for  optical  experiments. 

6.  A  small  glass  mirror  set  in  brass. 

7.  Two  small  speculums  set  in  brass. 

7.  A  stand  for  supporting  Prisms. 

8.  One  electric  globe  mounted. 

9.  One  pyrometer. 

10.  Two  magic  Lanthorns  with  one  slider. 

11.  Two  artificial  eyes. 

12.  One  lens  set  in  wood. 

13.  A  shagreen  box  containing  a  solar  microscope,  except 

such  parts  as  are  fixed  to  a  window  shutter,  and  a 
scale  of  magnifying  powers,  which  is  missing. 

14.  A  shagreen  case  containing  a  standing  microscope. 

15.  A  five  feet  perspective  glass. 

16.  A  mahogany  case  containing  a  pair  of  artificial  mag- 

nets. 

17.  A  mahogany  case  containing  a  variation  compass. 

1 8.  A  mahogany  case  containing  a  dipping  needle. 

19.  Several  wooden  wedges  and  cylinders. 

20.  A  Pine  box  containing  i  iron  screw,  i  brass  pin,  two 

small  brass  bars  for  an  electric  conductor,  i  pair  of 
caliber  compasses,  four  brass  screw-kegs,  &  7  brass 
pullies. 

21.  A  pine  box  containing  several  models  of  prisms  of 

various  shapes. 

22.  A  pine  box  containing  2  pair  of  pliers,  i  pair  of  nip- 


212  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

pers,  2  hand  vices,  I  pair  of  scissors,  6  screw  driv- 
ers, i  small  steel  anvil,  2  awls,  i  knife,  4  gimblets, 
&  a  key  for  the  air  pump. 

23.  One  chip  box  containing  shot,  cork-balls,  and  a  num- 

ber of  small  brass  screws. 

24.  One  pine  box  containing  wood  screws. 

25.  Five  small  chip  boxes  containing  lead  and  shot. 

26.  One  brass  arm  of  the  Transit  instrument  from  the  old 

apparatus. 

27.  One  natural  magnet  cased  in  silver. 

28.  A  brass  circle  with  five  glass  tubes,  fitted  for  the 

whirling  table. 

Class  3.    Alt.  III. 

1.  One  large  convex  lens. 

2.  Two  smaller  d°. 

3.  One  stand  for  prisms. 

4.  Two  triangular  water-prisms. 

5.  One  square  d°. 

6.  One  electric  globe  mounted. 

7.  One  microscopic  stand. 

8.  Two  draw  tubes  for  the  large  refracting  telescope. 

9.  A  box  containing  a  lens  for  a  camera  obscura. 

10.  A  box  containing  a  solar  microscope. 

11.  A  small  perspective  glass. 

12.  Six  glass  jarrs,  one  of  them  partly  coated  on  the  out- 

side; two  coated  and  filled  with  iron  and  brass 
filings;  one  with  brass  filings,  not  coated;  two 
neither  coated  nor  filled. 

13.  A  magnetic  compass,  the  remainder  of  an  old  Theodo- 

lite. 

14.  A  case  containing  an  azimuth  compass. 

15.  A     d°  d°       a  mariner's  compass. 

1 6.  Five  painted  tin  utensils  for  hydrostatic  experiments. 


Science.  213 

17.  Twenty-one  small  spermaceti  candles  for  the  pyro- 

meter. 

18.  Two  pieces  of  wood  coated  with  Tin-foil  for  electri- 

cal experiments. 

19.  Six  vials  containing  oils  of  various  kinds. 

20.  One  empty  vial. 

21.  One  water-prism  set  in  brass,  mounted  upon  a  stand 

Classes  I,  II,  III.    Alt.  IV. 

1.  Two  large  paper  screens  for  the  solar  microscope. 

2.  One   apparatus   for   illustrating   the   motion   of   the 

planets. 

3.  Three  spare  globes  for  the  portable  electric  machine, 

two  of  them  cap'd  with  brass. 

4.  A  glass  jarr  and  two  bubbles  for  specific  gravities. 

5.  A  glass  tube,  with  a  cup  at  each  end. 

6.  Three  spare  glass  barrels  for  the  fire-engine. 

7.  Four  syphons  of  different  shapes. 

8.  A  Lungo  glass. 

9.  Three  receivers  with  open  tops. 

10.  Three  glass  tubes. 

11.  One  broken  glass  mug. 

12.  Thirty  five  glass  vials  for  shewing  the  pressure  and 

elasticity  of  the  air. 

13.  A  compound  barometer  void  of  quicksilver  and  the 

case  unglued  in  part. 

14.  A  thermometrical  Tube  for  the  compound  barometer. 

15.  A  wooden  apparatus  for  shewing  the  effect  of  refrac- 

tion. 

16.  A  box  containing  two  thermometrical  tubes,  one  baro- 

metrical tube  broken  in  transportation,  six  baromet- 
rical tubes  intire,  four  capillary  tubes,  one  capillary 
tube  broken,  and  four  larger  open  tubes. 

17.  A  wooden  frame  containing  a  compleat  set  of  dials. 

1 8.  Eight  handles  for  screw  drivers. 

19.  A  bundle  of  wood-screws. 


214  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

20.  Fourteen  handles  for  screw  drivers. 

21.  A  bundle  of  drills  and  engraving  irons. 

22.  Eight  files. 

23.  Two  yellow  bowls. 

24.  Five  leather  covers  for  the  air  pump. 

25.  Four  brass  plates  which  belonged  to  the  old  apparatus. 

26.  A  brass  shade  for  a  quadrant. 

27.  A  circular  black  board. 

28.  A  pine  stand  for  a  prism. 

29.  Two  spare  globes  unmounted  for  the  electric  ma- 

.  chines. 

30.  One  tube  for  electrical  purposes. 

31.  A  paper  cone. 

32.  A  brass  slider. 

33.  Two  mahogany  cars  for  illustrating  the  laws  of  mo- 

tion. 

34.  One  chest  lock  without  a  key. 

35.  Three  large  and  four  small  wooden  pullies. 

36.  An  Aeolipile. 

37.  A  small  wooden  trough. 

38.  A  wooden  endless  screw. 

39.  A  tin  electric  conductor. 

40.  Five  large  electric  Jarrs  with  wooden  beds,  one  of  the 

jarrs  coated  and  two  of  them  broken. 

41.  Two  tin  candlesticks  and  one  pair  of  snuffers. 

42.  A  number  of  pamphlets,  viz : 

1.  Principles  of  Pump  work. 

2.  Elements  of  Opticks,  Parts  4th, 

5th,  &  6th. 

3.  Institutions  of  astronomical  cal- 

culations. 
By  B.  Martin. 

4.  Principles  of  Perspective. 

5.  Compendious    way    of    finding    the    autumnal 

Aequinox  by  common  Arithm0,  anon: 


Science.  215 

6.  Mountaine   on   the   variation   of   the   magnetic 

needle. 

7.  Nairne's  description  of  a  single  microscope,  2 

Copies. 
43.  Three  short  open  Tubes. 

Class  IV. 

1.  A  Barometer. 

2.  An  orrery  with  its  stand. 

2.  A  celestial  globe  of  28  inches  diameter. 

4.  A  small  box  containing  appendages  to  the  orrery,  and 

a  semicircle  for  the  hydraulic  machine. 

5.  Six  Iron  screws,  and  2  Screw-keys. 

6.  Four  wooden  legs  for  a  stool. 

7.  One  surveyor's  Iron  chain. 

8.  Eleven  loose  pieces  of  mahogany,  8  of  them  with 

screws. 

9.  One  small  Fully,  and  one  small  empty  pine  Box. 
10.  One  small  iron  Ladle. 

n.  A  lump  of  cement. 

12.  An  hydraulic  machine. 

13.  An  air-pump. 

14.  A  brass  stand  for  pendulums. 

15.  A  window-shutter  with  part  of  a  Solar  microscope 

screwed  to  it. 

16.  A  square  black-board. 

17.  A  pinelbox  for  the  18  Inch  Telescope,  which  Tele- 

scope was  entrusted  by  Dr.  Winthrop  to  Mr.  Gan- 
net  &  the  librarian  and  is  now  in  their  possession. 

1 8.  A  whirling  table  and  its  appendages. 

19.  Four  boxes ;  one  of  them  containing  a  refracting  tele- 

scope, and  the  other  three  containing  the  several 
parts  of  the  Transit  instrument. 

20.  A  chip  box,  containing  a  number  of  screws,  with  a 

small  brass  circle. 


2i6  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

21.  A  cometarium. 

22.  Two  mahogany  boxes  containing  an  Ec.ipsarium  and 

a  Tellurium  with  a  Terrestrial  globe  of  3  inches 
in  a  shagreen  case. 

23.  A   Planetarium. 

24.  A  small  auxiliary  sphere. 

25.  Two  electric  globes  mounted. 

26.  A  diagonal  glass. 

27.  A  brass  screw  key. 

28.  Two  brass  cocks. 

29.  A  vial  of  oil. 

30.  A  Towel  and  Pincushion. 

31.  A  Thermometer. 

32.  A  delph  bowl. 

33.  A  plane  mirror,  the  frame  unglued. 

34.  A  concave  mirror. 

35.  A  convex  d°. 

36.  A  cylindric  do  concave, 

37.  Four  maps. 

38.  A  view  of  several  Transits  of  Venus. 

39.  Martin's  advertisement  framed. 

40.  D°  wonders  of  the  cometary  world. 

41.  D°  view  of  the  Solar  system. 

42.  D°  Synopsis  Scientiae  celestes. 

43.  Two  tables. 

44.  A  large  chair  broken. 

45.  A  surveyor's  chain  of  50  links. 

46.  A  Thermometrical  scale. 

47.  A  Theodolite. 

48.  A  reflecting  telescope  with  a  micrometer. 

49.  A    mahogany    box    containing    Hadley's    Quadrant. 

There  is  also  in  the  apparatus  a  Jewish  lamp  with 
its  appendages  belonging  to  the  college. 
In  the  Philosophy  chamber  are  the  frames  of  two  elec- 
trical machines  belonging  to  the  apparatus.     A  mahogany 


Science.  217 

stand  for  the  Transit  Instrument,  and  a  brass  quadrant  of 
four  feet  Radius. 

At  the  House  of  Mrs.  Winthrop. 

1.  A  clock. 

2.  A  standing  quadrant  of  2  feet  Radius. 

3.  An  acromatic  Telescope — the  frame  damaged. 

4.  A  large  reflecting  telescope. 

5.  A  mahogany  case  containing  a  brass  3  feet  ruler 

6.  A  reading  glass  set  in  silver  in  a  tortoise  shell  case 

7.  An  Oaken  box  containing  an  hydrostatic  Ballance. 

8.  Farenheit's  Thermometer. 

9.  Two  boxes  for  the  clock  and  the  acromatic  telescope. 

10.  Two  oaken  boxes  containing  a  spirit  level  and  its 

stand. 

11.  The  eye  piece  of  a  refracting  telescope. 

CAI,EB  GANNETT,         "I  „, 

T  ,Tr  >Comtee. 

JAMBS  WINTHROP,      J 

Copy  examined  by  Saml.  Langdon,  Presdt. 
APPARATUS  IN  1790. 

As  a  contrast  to  the  extended  items  above  it  is  worth 
while  to  show  how  the  institution  had  come  through  that 
terrible  struggle  for  our  independence  although  the  period 
extends  beyond  the  general  limits  for  this  study. 

An  Inventory  of  the  apparatus  of  Harzwrd  University  taken 
January,  1790. 

Class  I. 

Under  the  first  shelf — some  crown  paper. 
Alt.  I. 

1.  A  cylindrical  brass  weight,  to  be  used  with  the  inclined 

plane. 

2.  A  loaded  mahogany  cylinder  for  d°. 


218  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

3.  A  tin  spheroid. 

4.  A  wooden  d°. 

5.  A  brass  stand  with  a  pulley. 

6.  A  loaded  pine  cylinder. 

7.  A  large  cylindric  brass  weight. 

8.  A    machine    containing    the    various    combinations    of 

pullies  with  their  weights. 

9.  A  pine  box  containing  one  cork,  two  box  wood,  three 

ivory,  two  leaden,  and  four  brass  balls,  and  fifteen 
cylindric  weights. 

10.  An.  oaken  box  containing  a  hydrostatic  balance. 

11.  A  fountain  for  compressed  air,  with  its  appendages. 

12.  Hydrostatic  bellows. 

13.  An  iron  and  a  brass  circle. 

14.  An  inclined  plane. 

15.  A  graduated  semicircle  for  the  hydraulic  machine. 

Alt.  II. 

1.  A  brass  top  to  a  stand. 

2.  Two  chip  boxes,  one  containing  five,  and  the  other  six 

glass  bubbles. 

3.  Two  d°  one  containing  six,  and  the  other  three  glass 

images. 

4.  A  small  tin  cup. 

5.  A  piece  of  cork  loaded  with  lead  and  two  wooden  cyl- 

inders. 

6.  A  waxen  cylinder,  two  waxen  bodies  in  form  of  an  egg 

and  two  small  waxen  balls. 

7.  A  glass  loaded  with  lead. 

8.  A  small  stone  jug,  containing  quicksilver. 

9.  Three  beakers. 

IO.  A  glass  syphon  for  the  hydrostatic  paradox. 

n.  A  mahogany  box  containing  a  small  glass  jar,  a  small 
pair  of  brass  pliers,  a  circular  brass  plate,  in  a  sha- 
green case  and  a  hydrometer. 


Science.  219 

12.  Two   glass   jars  and  three   glass  bubbles   for  specific 

gravities. 

13.  A  wooden  axis  in  peritrochio. 

14.  Two  glass  models  of  a  diving  bell. 

15.  Tantalus's  cup. 

1 6.  The  top  of  a  machine  for  impregnating  water  with 

fixed  air. 

17.  A  glass  fitted  to  take  off  the  upward  pressure  of  fluids. 

18.  Seven  glass  jars  of  different  sizes. 

19.  A  glass  fitted  to  take  off  the  downward  pressure  of 

fluids. 

20.  A  mahogany  case  containing  a  brass  three  feet  ruler. 

21.  A  glass  model  of  a  sucking  pump. 

22.  A  glass  machine  to  exhibit  a  natural  fountain. 

23.  Eight  glass  tubes  and  four  others  with  brass  screws  at 

their  ends. 

24.  Six  glass  syphons. 

Alt.  III. 

1.  Three  brass  scales  and  one  copper  d°. 

2.  Two  brass  balances. 

3.  A  machine  for  illustrating  the  wedge. 

4.  A  brass  axis  in  peritrochio. 

5.  A  bent  brass  lever. 

6.  A  carman's  lever. 

7.  A  compound  brass  lever. 

8.  An  eighteen  inch  brass  ruler. 

9.  A  nest  of  brass  weights. 
10.  A  brass  balance  beam, 
n.  A  brass  screw. 

12.  A  small  brass  stand  to  determine  the  centre  of  gravity. 

13.  A  small  mahogany  inclined  plane. 

14.  A  single  wooden  wedge  with  its  apparatus. 

15.  A  double  cone  and  stand. 

16.  A  combination  of  the  screw  and  pulley  in  brass. 


220  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

17.  Two  rectangular  brass  plates  for  the  whirling  table. 

1 8.  An  iron  wire  and  two  small  brass  balls. 

19.  Two  clip  boxes,  one  containing  eight  half-ounce  and 

four  quarter-ounce,  and  the  other  twenty-seven  one 
ounce  leaden  balls. 

20.  A  combination  of  all  the  mechanic  powers  in  brass,  fitted 

to  an  inclined  plane. 

21.  A  brass  steelyard. 

Class  II. 
Under  the  first  shelf. 

1.  Seven  brass  remnants,  one  coil  and  almost  another  of 

iron  wire,  together  with  some  remnants  of  iron  and 
brass  wire. 

2.  Three  large  broken  catgut  wheelbands  and  a  few  pieces 

of  catgut  and  hempen  cord. 

Alt.  I. 

1.  A  large  glass  jar  and  leaden  weight  with  a  brass  stand 

for  determining  specific  gravities. 

2.  Two  parts  of  a  receiver. 

3.  A  machine  for  shewing  the  respective  ratios  of  refrac- 

tion and  reflection. 

4.  A  model  of  an  engine  for  extinguishing  fire. 

5.  A  copper  flask  for  determining  the  weight  of  air. 

6.  A  receiver. 

7.  A  machine  for  shewing  the  expansion  of  air. 

Class  II.    Altitude  I. 
Drawer. 

1.  Thirteen  painted  slides  for  the  magic  lantern. 

2.  Eighteen  painted  glasses  for  the  magic  lantern — two  of 

them  broken. 

3.  About  five  yards  of  green  Persian  silk. 

4.  Two  small  plane  glass  mirrors. 


Science.  221 

5.  A  reading  glass  set  in  silver  in  a  tortoise  shell  case. 

6.  A  small  convex  and  a  small  concave  lens,  each  in  a 

horn  case. 

7.  A  multiplying  glass. 

8.  A  spirit  level  belonging  to  the  astronomical  quadrant. 

9.  A  small  vial  with  papers  fastened  to  it. 

10.  A  brass  sector  in  a  shagreen  case. 

11.  A  brass  diagonal  scale  in  a  shagreen  case. 

12.  Two  pair  of  brass  compasses. 

13.  Two  wooden  hemispheres. 

14.  Four  wooden  pins  with  strings  for  pendulums. 

15.  Two  wooden  models  of  towers  covered  with  paper. 

CARE  OF  THE  APPARATUS. 

It  is  not  an  unknown  thing  for  a  college  to  have  a  rather 
respectable  variety  of  apparatus  without  making  any  use  of 
it  practically  but  there  is  evidence  in  the  Harvard  Archives 
thac  something  was  done  with  these  implements  of  science. 
Either  they  were  handled  very  carelessly  or  they  were  of 
real  service.  The  following  bill  of  expenses  for  repairs  is 
enough  demonstration.  There  may  be  others  like  it  but 
this  is  a  fair  sample,  during  the  incumbency  of  John  Win- 
throp  who  did  so  much  to  advance  the  work  of  science  :289 

Expenses  for  the  apparatus  from  April,  1740,  to  April,  1741, 
allow'd  the  corporation  June  15,  1741,  being  signed  by 
the  mathematical  professor. 
1740. 

April    9.  To  cash  pd  for  4  turned  balls  for  va- 
rious  experiments   with   hooks  to  be 
screwed  in,  viz,  I  Ivery,  I  Boxwood  &  £     s.  d. 
of  lead,  3.   5. 

July     31.  To  2  Sheepskins,   o.  6.  o 

**  College  Book,  No.  6,  Hollis,  page  47. 


222  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Sept.  13.  To  4  hoops  for  electrical  experiments...  o.  4.  o 
Novr.    4.  To  mending   the   portable   camera  ob- 

scura,     . . . . o.  5 .  o 

1741. 
April    3.  To  turning  a  loaded  cylinder  &  3  balls 

of  light  wood, o.  8.  o 

To  2  Ibs.  lead  for  the  loaded  cylinder  & 
a     plummet     for     the     astronomical 

qadrant, o.  2.  4 

April  18.  To  a  set  of  grain  weights, o.   I.  6 

April  27.  To  a  plain  mirreur  for  optical  experi- 
ments,   o. 12.  o 

The  acco.  of  Jno.  Dabney,  mathematical  instru- 
ment maker,  for  work  done  at  Sundry  times. 
June    21.  To  fixing  the  astronomical  quadrant  by 
making    a    skrew,    putting    in    cross 
hairs  &  turning  a    (cell)    to  hold  a 
smoak'd  glass  and  cleaning  it  through- 
out,  i.  8.  o 

May    24.  To  fixing  cross-hairs  in  a  cell  in  the  8 

foot  telescope,   —  .   1 .  6.  o 

May  30.  To  making  a  spring  for  the  strong  Ball- 
ance  for  measuring  the  force  of  fall- 
ing bodies,  o.  8.  o 

Sep.     25.  To  mending  the  ballance  for  weighing 

levity,    0.13.  o 

1741. 

Febr.  24.  To  brass  wire  for  plum  lines, o.   3.  o 

March  13.  To  fixing  a  screw  on  the  handle  of  a 

large  optic  lens, o.  5 .  o 


£9.  6.10 

(Signed)  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


Science.  223 


AT  YALE  AND 

If  the  data  were  as  abundant  for  the  other  institutions 
as  for  Harvard  we  might  be  able  to  repeat  these  lists  to  a 
considerable  extent  but  it  is  unnecessary  even  if  possible. 
There  could  have  been  no  great  difference  in  the  progres- 
sive institutions  of  the  day.  A  very  brief  glance  is  afforded 
of  the  facilities  at  Yale  by  President  Stiles  some  two  or 
three  years  beyond  the  end  of  our  colonial  period,  but  it  is 
enough  for  us  to  see  that  Yale  was  moving  along  the  same 
road  with  her  sister  a  few  miles  northward.290  Here  in  a 
blunt  sort  of  way  we  have  the  following  list: 
President  Clap's  planetarium  about  7  ft.  diameter. 
Mr.  planetarium,  exhibiting  astronomical  movements 

by  mechanism. 

Mr.  Austin  d°  in  wires  about  3^  diameter. 
Mr.   William's  cometarium;    Mr.   Austin's  Lunarium,  air 

pump,    hydrost.     balance,     barometer,     sextant,     prism, 

specula    sphero-concave    &    plano-concave    microscope; 

telescope  a  reflector;  theodolite. 
Mr.  Clap's  comet  of  1774. 
Hadley's  quadrant,  2  pair  globes. 
Brass  d°  astronomical. 
Small  electrical  apparatus. 
Compleat  sett  of  surveying  instruments. 
Paintings  of  the  human  body  skined  Anatomical. 
Human  skeleton. 
A  portable  sextant  about  5  ft.  radius. 

According  to  an  experienced,  capable  teacher  of 
physics,2908  these  lists  indicate  a  good  equipment  in  elemen- 
tary optics  and  hydrostatics,  but  a  poor  outfit  for  mechanics. 
Naturally  the  applainces  for  sound  and  electricity  are  very 
meager,  as  but  little  development  had  been  made  in  those 
branches. 

*°E.  Stiles,  Diary,  June  23,  1779,  Vol.  3,  page  348. 
"°a  w.  A.  Hedrick,  Ph.  D.,  Washington,  D.  C. 


224  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

The  whole  of  the  science  came  from  tiny  rootlets  far 
down  in  the  mold  of  ignorance  and  superstition.  A  strug- 
gle it  was  with  generally  accepted  religion  and  with 
strongly  intrenched  conservatism  for  this  little  plant  to 
push  its  way  up  on  a  level  with  the  humanistic  branches. 
Latin  had  been  in  the  saddle  for  centuries  practically,  alone, 
beating  off  every  aspirant  who  wished  to  share  that  honor. 
Greek  never  climbed  up  alongside  of  her,  logic,  ethics,  and 
philosophy  even  were  only  adjuncts.  Mathematics  had  but 
little  more  success.  Finally  the  last  champion  from  the 
outside  comes  forward  in  the  guise  of  science.  At  first  he 
had  to  wear  the  Latin  garb  and  to  follow  the  old  beaten 
track  of  question  and  answer,  of  dogmatic  statement,  of 
directions  without  reasons,  of  dead  memorizing  of  the 
words  of  the  printed  page  or  from  the  master's  lips.  Slowly 
inventiveness  came  to  the  aid  with  apparatus,  and  eventually 
with  laboratories  but  not  until  far  into  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. There  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  any  of  this  appar- 
atus was  used  by  the  students.  Very  likely  the  class  only 
viewed  portions  of  it  as  the  teacher  performed  experiments 
in  front  to  illustrate  some  point 

Of  the  scientific  attitude  as  it  is  cultivated  to-day,  of  cold, 
dispassionate  study  of  nature  without  the  lingering  flavor 
of  authority  or  of  religion,  our  colonial  ancestors  knew 
nothing.  Of  the  great  range  of  subjects  now  in  profusion 
in  one-half  of  our  colleges  the  colonial  youth  had  no  con- 
ception. Substantially,  he  had  no  geology,  no  ioology,  no 
chemistry,  and  but  little  botany.  Physics  alone  was  prepared 
for  him  with  anything  like  the  fullness  of  to-day.  For  a 
long  time  it  was  an  off-shoot  of  mathematics  from  which  it 
originally  sprang.  But  in  the  dim  light  of  the  dawn  the 
soil  was  being  stirred  and  the  seed  being  dropped  from 
which  we  have  reaped  so  abundantly.  To  that  extent  are 
we  indebted  to  our  colonial  ancestors  for  preparing  the 
way. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
DISPUTATION. 

"They  dispute  before  dinner;  they  dispute  after  dinner; 
they  dispute  in  private  and  in  public,  at  all  times  and  at 
every  place;"  thus  runs  the  description  of  one  of  the  lead- 
ing educational  functions  of  the  middle  ages,  left  us  by  one 
of  the  stars  of  the  period,  Giovanni  Ludovico  Vives  who 
died  in  1540,  a  little  under  fifty  years  of  age.  A  Spaniard, 
educated  in  France,  teaching  in  the  Netherlands,  lecturing 
in  England,  writing  profusely  on  educational  topics,  he 
was  in  the  very  center  of  the  vortex,  with  every  oppor- 
tunity of  observing  all  phases  of  the  whirling  stream  about 
him. 

The  exercise  did  become  absurd  but  its  origin  was  natural, 
even  necessary.  It  degenerated  into  the  spinning  of  cob- 
webs in  a  circle,  there  was  incessant  movement  but  no  ad- 
vance, a  species  of  marking  time,  treading  ostentatiously 
but  getting  nowhere.291  But  the  intellectual  conditions,  the 
very  structure  of  social  life  itself  forced  this  product  into 
being.  Authority  reigned,  in  conduct,  in  morals,  in  relig- 
ion, and  in  intellect.  The  Bible,  the  church  fathers,  the 
classical  authors,  the  formal  deliverance  of  ecclesiastics, 
were  the  metes  and  bounds  for  mankind,  and  Latin  was 
the  medium  of  utterance.  In  these  pages  were  rules  for  the 
guidance  of  our  daily  steps,  in  them  were  the  finger  posts 
to  the  shores  of  eternity,  in  them  was  truth  on  all  the  re- 
lations of  life  whether  of  the  head  or  of  the  heart.  To 
weigh,  to  analyze,  to  criticise,  to  melt  in  the  crucible  of 
logic,  to  dissect,  to  arrange,  to  combine  the  ideas  con- 
tained in  these  sources,  that  was  the  refined  essence  of  edu- 

mEggleston,  Transit,  page  249. 
15 


226  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

cation.  Discussion  became  a  passion,  dialectics  became  a 
creed,  disputation  was  almost  an  act  of  worship,  textual 
study  was  almost  a  supersition,  the  polemical  faculties  were 
sharpened.  Education  gloated  on  the  past,  poring  over 
lands  already  trodden  by  thousands  of  feet  instead  of  seek- 
ing new  roads  in  other  fields.  The  dead  hand  shaded  the 
world. 

DISPUTATION  A  PATRIARCH. 

There  was  the  sanctity  of  conservatism  and  the  blessing 
of  age  upon  the  discipline.  Socrates  was  not  the  father  of 
it  but  he  was  a  very  great  promoter  of  it.  His  wonderful 
pupil,  Plato,  assisted  and  preserved  the  method.  The  title 
istelf  of  the  Tusculan  Disputations  of  Cicero  evinces  his 
aid  in  the  cultivation  of  this  process.  It  was  a  slow  growth 
for  centuries,  perhaps  showing  but  little  increase  of 
strength  till  Charlemagne's  pedagogue,  Alcuin,  has  left  his 
use  of  it  in  his  educational  dialogues.  A  century  or  so 
afterwards,  in  the  ten  hundreds,  at  the  University  of 
Rheims,  greater  stress  was  laid  upon  it,  elevating  it  into  the 
ranks  of  the  regular  studies.2*2 

Some  two  centuries  after  came  the  fruition  in  the  bril- 
liant lecturer,  Abelard,  who  had  such  a  daring  romance  in 
his  career,  especially  for  a  closet  student.  He  stood  for 
the  sovereignty  of  dialectics.  He  perfected  the  system 
which  was  the  soul  of  scholastic  philosophy  and  lasted  foi 
cycles  of  years.293  From  him  onward  came  the  abundant 
Amazonian  foliage. 

TEACHERS  ARGUE. 

Both  teachers  and  pupils  were  entangled  in  this  luxuriant 
growth.  It  was  the  same  problem  for  the  two  to  squeeze 
out  the  meaning  from  written  words.  But  it  must  have 

**  S.  S.  Laurie,  page  62,  Rise  of  Universities. 
293  Compayre's  Abelard,  page  21. 


Disputation.  227 

been  a  shrewd  educational  captain  of  the  day  that  required 
the  instructors  to  hold  disputations  among  themselves  in 
the  presence  of  the  students.  Weekly  in  the  University  of 
Paris,  for  a  time,  there  were  these  joint  meetings  in  which 
one  of  the  staff  would  defend  a  proposition  while  another 
would  attack.  What  a  stimulus  to  the  master  to  be  thus 
tested  before  his  class,  what  a  squelcher  to  pedagogical  con- 
ceit and  what  a  help  to  clearness  of  vision.294  They  were 
fortified,  buttressed  and  armored  with  thorny  syllogisms, 
more  agile  and  more  resourceful  in  contests  with  their 
youthful  pupils.  Not  seldom  too,  we  can  easly  conceive, 
that  they  went  from  words  to  blows  or  at  least  to  undig- 
nified quarrels  in  which  the  personal  element  would  be  far 
more  apparent  than  the  logical.  There  is  one  little  incident 
that  may  be  a  key  hole  glance  upon  a  room  full  of  bitter 
acrimony  and  loud  jarring  of  voices.  Newton's  theory  of 
the  vacuum  supplied  an  opprobrious  epithet  that  one  dis- 
putant applied  to  the  inside  of  the  other's  head,  that  that 
was  the  one  vacant  space  in  all  nature.  Vives  is  very 
graphic,  most  likely  including  the  teachers,  when  he  says 
"men  shout  out  till  they  are  hoarse;  they  make  use  of  in- 
sutling  speeches  and  threats,  they  even  come  to  blows, 
fights,  and  buffetings.  Discussions  degenerate  into  quar- 
rels and  quarrels  into  fighting."295 

THE  ENTHUSIASM  OF  THE  PUPILS. 

But  the  zeal  and  energy  of  youth  mounted  the  highest. 
They  were  not  only  eager  for  this  kind  of  verbal  fighting 
in  the  school  room  but  they  were  ready  for  such  fray  all 
the  time,  getting  up  "questions  on  the  simplest  propositions. 
On  the  mere  words  scribi  mihi  they  put  questions  of  gram- 

**  Compayre's  Abelard,  page  174. 

*"*  Compayre's  Abelard,  page  189,  quoting  from  Vives.  Stow  in 
his  Survey  of  London,  Morley  edition,  speaks  of  the  decline  of  the 
custom  of  the  masters  disputing  with  each  other. 


228  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

mar,  physics,  and  metaphysics.  They  had  no  concern  for 
truth,  but  sought  merely  to  defend  their  own  opinions."288 

But  there  is  a  dash  of  stronger  color  in  England,  than 
to  be  seen  in  this  general  picture  of  European  conditions 
by  Vives,  furnished  by  an  observer  of  London  life  just 
about  a  decade  of  years  before  our  fathers  set  foot  on  Vir- 
ginia soil  in  1607.  Of  the  contentious,  high-keyed,  shrill 
voiced  mob  of  boys  pushing  and  crowding,  stamping  and 
gesticulating,  scratching  and  striking,  on  some  green  sward 
in  this  mightiest  city  of  the  earth,  we  have  realistic  scenes 
from  the  pen  of  this  quaint  author  who  wrote  as  follows: 
"As  for  the  meeting  of  Schoolmasters  on  festival  days,  at 
festival  churches,  and  the  disputing  of  their  scholars  logi- 
cally, whereof  I  have  before  spoken,  the  same  was  long 
since  discontinued.  But  the  arguing  of  schoolboys  about 
the  principles  of  grammar,  hath  been  continued  even  till 
our  time;  for  I  myself  (in  my  youth)  have  yeerely  seen, 
on  the  even  of  Saint  Bartholomew  the  Apostile,  the  schol- 
ars of  divers  grammar  schools  repair  unto  the  churchyard 
of  Saint  Bartholomew  the  priory  in  Smithfield  where  upon 
a  bank  bordered  about  a  tree  some  one  scholar  hath  stepped 
up  and  there  hath  opposed  and  answered,  till  he  were  by 
some  better  scholar  overcome  and  put  down.  And  then  the 
overcomer  taking  the  place,  did  like  as  the  first ;  and  in  the 
end  the  best  opposers  and  answerers  had  rewards,  which 
I  observed  not;  but  it  made  both  schoolmasters,  and  also 
good  scholars  (diligently  against  such  times)  to  prepare 
themselves  for  the  obtaining  of  this  garland." 

He  also  paints  street  fights  between  boys  of  Saint  An- 
thony and  Paul's  Church  schools ;  one  set  would  call  others 
Paul's  pigeons  as  many  pigeons  at  Pauls,  but  these  would 
retort  with  "Saint  Anthony's  pigs"  as  Saint  Anthony  was 
always  figured  with  a  pig  following  him.  But  they  "did 
for  a  long  season,  disorderly  in  the  open  street,  provoke  one 

""Thus  records  Vives,  as  quoted,  page  189  of  Compayre's  Abelard. 


Disputation.  229 

another  with  salve  tu  quoque;  placet  tibi  mecum  dis- 
putaref  placet.  And  so  proceeding  from  this  to  questions 
in  grammar,  they  usually  fell  from  words  to  blows,  with 
their  satchels  full  of  books,  many  times  in  great  heaps,  that 
they  troubled  the  streets  and  passengers,  so  that  finally  they 
were  restrained  with  the  decay  of  Saint  Anthony's 
school."297 

THE  SCOPE  OF  DISPUTATION. 

This  fiery  fervor  of  controversy  extended  up  and  down, 
to  right  and  left.  It  was  nurtured  in  the  universities  and  it 
was  fostered  in  the  training  schools.  In  the  University  of 
Paris  the  regent  met  his  pupils  three  times  daily,  at  sun 
rise,  noon  and  evening.  At  one  of  these  meetings  disputa- 
tion held  the  floor.298  It  began  with  theology,  in  an  at- 
tempt to  extract  the  ideas  first,  and  later  in  a  burning  effort 
to  reconcile  dogma  with  reason.  Here  it  attained  its  abound- 
ing growth,  here  was  its  favorite  haunt.  From  this  embryo 
it  spread  to  the  philosophical  branches,  to  law,  and  to  medi- 
cine. Even  disease  was  to  be  treated  with  the  syllogism. 
Grammar,  that  is  Latin,  mathematics,  and  all  other  subjects 
of  pedagogical  interest  were  washed  in  this  acid  of  the  mind. 
Even  the  declensions,  both  of  nouns  and  verbs  were  sub- 
jected to  this  strainer. 

QUESTIONS  DEBATED  BY  MEDIEVALISTS. 

Fortunately  many  specimens  of  the  topics  discussed  have 
come  down  to  us,  though  most  largely  in  theology.  There 
are  however  enough  in  other  domains  to  give  us  a  tincture 
at  any  rate  of  the  whole  volume.  Alcuin  has  faint  streaks 
of  this  method  in  his  goat  like  quips  and  starts  in  one  of  his 
dialogues,  running  thus: 

*"  Stow's  Survey  of  London,  edition  of  1633,  PP-  64,  65. 
198  S.  S.  Laurie,  page  271,  of  Rise  of  Universities. 


230  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

"What  is  language?" 
"The  betrayer  of  the  soul." 
"What  is  the  tongue  ?" 
"The  whip  of  the  air." 
"What  is  snow?" 
"Dry  water."299 

Of  a  higher  and  more  sustained  flight  are  some  that  Mil- 
ton inhumed  in  his  ponderous  style.  Seven  of  these  have 
been  gathered  from  the  wrecks  of  time  and  are  appended 
below. 

1.  Utrum  dies  an  Nox  Praestantior. 
WhetherDay  or  Night  is  the  more  excellent. 

2.  De  sphasrarum  concentu. 

O  the  music  of  the  spheres. 

3.  Contra  philosophiam   scholasticam. 
Against  scholastic  philosophy. 

4.  In  rei  cujuslibet  interitu  non  datur  resolutio  ad  Materiam 

primam. 

In  the  destruction  of  anything  whatsoever  there  is  no 
resolution  into  first  matter. 

5.  Non  datur  formae  partiales  in  animali  praeter  totalem 
There  are  no  partial  forms  in  an  animal  in  addition  to 

the  total. 

6.  Exercitationes      nonnumquam      ludicras      Pholosophiae 

studiis  non  obesse. 

Occasional   sportive   relaxations  are  not  obstructive  to 
philosophical  studies. 

7.  Deatiores  reddit  homines  ars  quam  ignorantia. 

Art  is  more  conducive  to  human  happiness  than  ignor- 
ance. 

Three  of  the  obove  were  recited  in  college,  three  in  the 
public  schools,  while  another  was  considered  as  a  burlesque 

588  West's  Alcuin,  page  106. 


Disputation.  231 

upon  the  exercise  of  disputation,  and  delivered  at  a  meeting 
of  the  students.800 

But  it  is  in  the  realm  of  religion  that  we  find  a  thicket  of 
them.  Many  of  them  are  absurd,  they  would  be  worthy  of 
a  place  here  for  ridicule  only,  if  we  did  not  remember  the 
tense  earnestness  with  which  genuine  young  souls  once 
tackled  these  problems. 

"How  many  angels  can  stand  on  the  point  of  a  needle?" 

Can  the  rite  of  baptism  be  performed  with  air,  sand,  or 
earth;  with  beer,  fish  broth,  or  rose  water,  as  well  as  with 
water  ?" 

"What  is  the  interior  structure  of  Paradise?  What  do 
the  angels  do  with  their  bodies  of  which  they  have  made  use 
to  fulfill  a  mission  on  earth?  What  was  the  color  of  the 
Virgin's  skin?" 

"Why  did  Adam  eat  an  apple  instead  of  a  pear?"801 

"Where  was  the  earthly  paradise?" 

"What  was  the  forbidden  fruit?" 

"Where  was  Lazarus's  soul  while  his  body  lay  dead?" 

"What  sort  of  bodies  shall  we  have  at  the  resurrec- 
tion ?"3(* 

Not  all  were  in  the  form  of  question  and  answer.  Some 
were  more  what  we  would  call  a  proposition  at  the  present 
day  than  a  struggle  of  wits.  A  professional  theologian, 
Melanchthon,  furnishes  us  a  good  example  of  this  sort  of 
question  in  his  Disputatio  de  Baptismo  which  proceeds  in 
regular  steps  as  follows: 

1.  Baptism  is  the  sign  of  promised  grace. 

2.  Nor  is  the  significance  to  be  referred  to  one  time  but 
to  the  whole  life. 

"""Masson's  Milton,  VoL  I,  page  241. 

801  Seeley  quotes  several  of  these  from  the  German  history  of  edu- 
cation by  Schmidt. 
101 R.  H.  Quick's  Locke,  page  193. 


232  Our  Cclonial  Curriculum. 

3.  Verily  does  Baptism  justify  since  comforted  by  this 
sign  we  believe  our  sins  to  be  remitted  through  Christ. 

4.  When   Paul   says  the   Israelites  passing  through  the 
Red  Sea  were  baptized  it  is  to  be  understood  they  were  truly 
Baptized.303 

"Can  God  order  men  to  do  ill  ?" 

"Can  He  make  man  incapable  of  sin?" 

"Could  He  have  made  the  world  better  than  it  is  ?" 

"Can  He  be  comprehended  under  a  predicate?" 

"Can  He  create  a 'universal  which  has  no  particulars?"304 

JESUIT  DISPUTATION. 

Such  an  important  exercise  had  its  own  pedagogical  har- 
ness. There  were  formal  rules  drawn  up  for  the  proper 
carrying  on  of  these  verbal  duels.  None  of  the  educational 
agencies  attach  more  importance  to  this  discipline  that  that 
organization,  wonderful  both  in  religion  and  in  education, 
the  Jesuits.  Robert  of  Sorbonne,founder  of  the  college  of 
that  name,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  his  order,  struck  to 
the  very  core  of  the  pedagogical  notions  of  the  day  when 
he  laid  down  the  principle  "nihil  perfecte  scitur  nisi  dente 
disputationis  feriatur,"  or  "nothing  is  perfectly  known  un- 
less masticated  by  the  tooth  of  disputation."305  On  this 
foundation  the  Jesuits  built  declaring  that  one  disputation 
did  more  good  than  many  lectures.  They  held  that  theology 
and  philosophy  were  acquired  by  discussing  not  by  hearing. 
In  such  contests  all  energies  they  held  are  wrought  up  to 
the  highest  pitch.  Besides  in  that  era  of  religious  compe- 
tition with  the  growing  force  of  the  reformation  they  very 
wisely  saw  that  victory  in  such  struggles  was  an  advertise- 
ment for  the  school,  as  wise  in  their  declaration  as  any  of 

808  From   Bretschneider's   work  on   Melanchthon. 
-so*  J.  A.  Froude's  Erasmus,  page  123. 
306  Hughes's  Loyola,  page  208,  quoting  from  Vaughan's  Aquinas. 


Disputation.  233 

us  are  to-day  in  the  physical  counterpart  of  athletics  but  on 
a  higher  plane.  They  knew  human  nature  and  always  in- 
sisted on  an  audience  because  argument  "freezes  except  in 
a  crowd."  They  gave  two  hours  weekly  in  their  ordinary 
schools  to  disputation,  forcing  the  teachers  to  be  present. 
Before  1600  they  drew  up  a  most  comprehensive  outline  for 
the  proper  conducting  of  this  exercise.306 

ENGUSH  INSISTENCE. 

At  the  University  of  Cambridge  it  was  an  ironclad  stipu- 
lation that  every  candidate  for  a  degree  should  have  at 
least  two  of  these  public  acts  in  the  university  during  the 
last  year  before  graduation,  besides  the  minor  ones  in  his 
college.  Each  one  would  hand  in  a  list  of  three  propositions 
that  he  would  maintain  in  debate  and  usually  a  moral  or 
metaphysical  one  would  be  selected  as  the  gauge  for  battle. 
Then  he  as  "respondent"  would  face  his  adversary  as  op- 
ponent. In  such  a  large  institution  it  became  a  regular  per- 
formance immediately  after  dinner  in  either  the  university 
or  the  college,  often  times  it  was  an  intercollegiate  contest 
though  it  is  not  clear  that  the  moderator  gave  a  decision 
in  every  instance. 

There  was  all  the  weight  of  governmental  authority  be- 
hind this  as  one  of  the  regular  duties  of  the  university.  The 
three  following  chapters  from  the  Statutes  of  Elizabeth 
for  the  government  of  Cambridge  will  show  how  high 
disputation  was  in  the  curriculum.307  The  directions  are 
given  in  some  detail,  covering  the  times  and  the  qualifica- 
tions necessary  for  the  proper  performance  of  this  task, 
all  in  the  original  Latin. 

808  In  the  ratio  studiorum  of  1586  is  an  entire  chapter  on  disputa- 
tion, to  be  found  in  volume  5  of  Monumenta  Germaniae  Pedagogica, 
pages  100-107. 

807  Dyer's  Privileges  of  Cambridge,  Vol.   I,  pages   173-174. 


234  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

DE  DISPUTATION IBUS  SOPHISTARUM. 

Ordo  disputationum  hie  est.  Inter  sophistas  veterrimus  se 
responsorem  exhibebit,  et  ordine  sequentur  alii  juniores  ad 
finem  illius  Anni.  Primus  dies  Termini  erit  decimus  Octo- 
bris :  non  respondebit,  nisi  qui  secundum  annum  expleverit. 
Tres  principes  questiones  proponat,  unam  in  Mathematicis, 
alteram  in  dialecticis,  tertiam  in  Philosophicis  naturalibus 
aut  moralibus ;  quas  Triduo  ante  affiget  valvis  Scholae  suae. 
Caeteri  contra  disputando.  Ubi  responsor  haesitaverit,  mod- 
erator alter  si  possit  nodum  dissolvit.  Tempora  earum  dis- 
putationum erunt  Diebus  Lunae,  martis,  Mecurii,  Jovis  et 
veneris,  a  prima  post  Meridiem  ad  tertiam.  Scholae  Mod- 
erator per  singulas  Disputationes  tres  suo  Arbitrio  per- 
mittat,  vetustatio  ordine  argumenta  Respondenti  proponere 
praeter  principatem  Disputatorem." 

DE  BACCALAUREORUM  DISPUTATIONIBUS. 

"Baccalaureonim  Disputationes  fient  Die  Veneris  a  nona 
ad  undecimam  si  nulla  tune  magistrorum  Disputatio  sit ;  tune 
enim  fient  ab  Hora  prima  ejusdem  Diei  usque  ad  tertiam 
Respondebit  non  nisi  Baccalaureus  secundi  Anni.  Incipiat 
veterrimus,  et  ordine  reliqui  sequentur.  Contra  disputabit 
unus  suo  Ordine,  cui  scholae  moderator  adjunget  quatuor 
aut  plures  pro  suo  arbitrio  in  singulis  Disputationibus,  qui 
Argumenta  Respondenti  objiciant.  Qui  cursum  suum  in 
Respondendo  omiserit  decem  Solidis  Mulctetur  qui  vero 
in  opponendo  cursum  omiserit,  tribus  Solidis  et  quatuor 
Denariis." 

DE  DECLAMATIONIBUS  BACCALAUREORUM. 

"Baccalaureorum  Declamationes  erunt  Diebus  Sabbati. 
ab  Hora  octava  ad  nonam  ante  meridiem.  Primo  vero  Heb- 
domada  duo  ordine  Baccalaurei  unum  Thema  tractabunt, 
cujus  contrariam  Partem  duo  alii  dependent  Hebdomada 


Disputation.  235 

sequenti  sub  Paena  quinque  Solidorum,  si  quis  cursum  suum 
omiserit." 

AMERICAN  LOVE  FOR  DISPUTATION. 

Neither  the  Jesuits  nor  the  English  outclassed  our  an- 
cestors in  their  devotion  to  this  branch  of  education.  The 
first  school  course  of  study  in  the  new  world,  that  at  Har- 
vard in  1642,  called  for  disputation  in  each  of  the  three 
classes  twice  every  week,  on  Mondays  and  Tuesdays.  We 
tracked  right  after  our  English  forefathers  in  laying  stress 
upon  this  work.  The  freshmen  had  also  to  give  these  pub- 
lic exercises  every  year  while  the  sophisters  had  to  be  pres- 
ent twice  a  week.  The  bachelors  had  to  appear  in  public 
once  every  fortnight  under  the  eye  of  the  president,  besides 
having  regularly,  with  the  sophisters,  to  write  out  an  analy- 
sis of  some  branch  of  sacred  literature.  Mather  in  his  Mag- 
nalia,808  gives  the  formula  for  investing  the  privilege  of  dis- 
puting upon  the  pupils:  "Admitto  te  ad  primum  gradum 
in  Artibus,  scilicet,  ad  respondendum  questioni,  pro  more 
academiarum  in  Anglia,"  or  "I  admit  you  to  the  first  de- 
gree in  arts,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  privilege  of  responding  in 
debate,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  English  universities." 
There  was  a  similar  formula  for  the  master's  degree. 
Mather  was  a  pugnacious  fellow,  even  in  philology.  He 
knew  the  exercise  was  really  a  fight  and  he  got  "bachelor" 
from  "batualius,"  a  term  that  carries  the  idea  of  beating  or 
battling.  Most  likely  this  derivation  is  fanciful  but  it  is  all 
the  more  significant  of  the  enthusiasm  for  this  educational 
encounter.309 

There  was  no  decline,  either,  in  the  affection  for  this  form 
of  training.  The  Harvard  course,  nearly  a  century  after- 
wards, in  1728,  demanded  two  disputes  a  week  from  each 

308  Hartford  edition  of  1853,  Vol.  2,  page  13. 

**  Neither  the  Oxford  nor  the  Century  Dictionary  refers  to  this 
theory. 


236  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

of  the  first  three  classes,  and  one  from  the  seniors.310  On 
towards  the  middle  of  that  century  disputation  was  re- 
quired as  a  part  of  the  entrance  examination  to  Harvard 
as  we  are  told  by  one  of  the  students  that  in  1742  the  presi- 
dent gave  out  the  two  following  themes: 

Sapientia  praestat  viribus. 

Labor  improbus  omnia  vincit 311 

-On  beyond  the  middle  of  that  hundred  years,  the  gradu- 
ating class  were  required  to  dispute  in  Latin  under  the  su- 
pervision of  the  President  who  also  corrected  them  in  that 
tongue.  They  conducted  the  exercises  in  the  form  of  syl- 
logisms.312 

Yale  of  course  was  not  behind  Harvard  along  this  line. 
Her  earliest  laws  stipulated  for  disputations,  bachelors  once 
weekly,  undergraduates  five  times,  after  they  had  begun  to 
learn  logic.  A  score  of  years  later  the  general  body  of 
students  had  to  go  through  this  contest  every  Friday  some 
half  dozen  at  a  time  in  Latin,  Greek  or  Hebrew,  while  the 
senior  classes  did  the  same  twice  a  week.313 

That  other  early  institution  in  our  colonies,  William  and 
Mary,  most  naturally  had  the  same  exercises  with  the  same 
formalities,  coming  from  the  same  English  source.  The 
early  statutes  provided  that  the  president  and  professors 
"diligently  attend  their  lectures  and  disputations."314 

KECKERMAN'S  Rui^s. 

We  have  seen  specimens  of  the  subjects  discussed,  we 
have  noted  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  matter,  but  it  was 
left  to  a  very  solemn  stick,  Bartholomew  Keckerman,  to 

810  Quincy's  Harvard,  Vol.  i,  page  441. 

311  Peirce's  Harvard,  page  238,  quoting  from  Holyoke's  manuscript 
diary. 

M  Peirce's  Harvard,  page  308,  quoting  from  Judge  W.  Paine  who 
was  at  Harvard  1755  to  1759,  but  wrote  his  recollections  in  1831. 

3U  Kingsley's  Yale,  Vol.  2,  page  497. 

314  History  of  William  and  Mary,  1817,  Philadelphia,  page  52. 


Disputation.  237 

draw  up  the  minutest  regulations  for  the  grave  and  cere- 
monious management  of  this  subject.  Keckerman  was  born 
at  Dantzig  in  1573  and  was  afterward  engaged  in  some  of 
the  more  eastern  universities.  He  is  a  typical  product  of  the 
times,  prolix,  pedantic,  and  frightfully  methodic.  He  had  a 
raging  itch  for  outlines  and  schemes  of  classification.  In 
the  two  volumes  of  his  completed  works  there  are  nineteen 
folio  pages  of  logic  tables  and  sixty-two  for  philosophy.  He 
was  by  instinct  a  sermonizer,  curling  his  tongue  deliciously 
up  to  I7thly  and  33dly  with  a  canebrake  of  main  heads  and 
subheads  and  minor  divisions  interspersed  with  long  and 
short  brackets.  He  is  awfully  tedious  in  his  serious  at- 
tempts to  cover  the  whole  realm  of  the  known.  Fortunately 
for  subsequent  students  he  died  early,  at  the  age  of  36.  If 
he  had  lived  the  allotted  span  of  years  his  collected  works 
would  be  equal  to  a  Japanese  novel  of  200  volumes. 

He  devotes  a  whole  chapter  to  disputation  and  a  rather 
exact  rendering  of  his  Latin  is  here  given.  It  is  perhaps, 
certainly  so  far  as  this  investigation  disclosed,  the  com- 
pletest  treatment  of  the  subject  in  existence,  it  is  also  worth 
all  the  type  it  requires  as  a  snap  shot  picture  of  the  medieval 
education,  its  drudgery,  its  worship  of  authority,  and  conse- 
quently its  slavishness  and  weakness  of  individuality. 

Chapter  seven  of  volume  i  of  his  work  contains  what 
he  has  to  say  on  disputation  formally  though  there  are 
many  other  side  lights  in  other  places  especially  in  his  logic. 
In  English  we  have  him  thus : 


CHAPTER  7. 
ON  DISPUTATION. 

I.  We  have  divided  the  treatment  of  connected  topics 
into  individual  and  social.     But  since  we  have  thus  far  fin- 
ished the  treatment  of  all  problems  theoretical  as  well  as 
practical,  therefore  our  path  leads  us  to  the  social  which  is 
likewise   more   theoretical   or   more   practical.      The   more 
theoretical  by  a  special  term  is  called  Disputation ;  the  more 
practical  is  indeed  called  Conference. 

II.  Disputation  therefore  is  that  sort  of  treatment  of  a 
problem  or  connected  matter  in  which  two  adversaries  con- 
tend with  each  other  so  that  the  one  as  opponent,  the  other 
as  respondent  join  battle. 

III.  The  general  principles  of  disputation  are: 

1.  Disputation  is  not  only  a  logical  act  but  also  an  ethi- 
cal one,  even  a  theological  and  political  one,  if  there 
is  indeed  argument  on  these  things. 

2.  Hence,  for  properly  carrying  on  a  disputation  there 
is  needed  not  only  logical  but  ethical  and  political  vir- 
tue, even  sacred  and  theological  spirit  and  to  that 
extent  disputation  should  follow  not  only  the  logical 
rules  but  the  political  and  ethical  ones  of  affability 
and  moderation,  and  certainly  those  of  Christian  piety 
and  custom. 

3.  Since  disputation  is  a  logical  act,  all  depends  on  the 
individual  treatment  of  questions,  or  arguments,  and 
hence  it  is  the  duty  of  those  trying  to  dispute  happily 
to  be  trained  beforehand  in  the  individual  handling 
of  connected  questions. 

IV.  Certainly  about  disputation  are  two  things  to  be  con- 
sidered:   (i)  its  principle  or  object;    (2)  its  parts. 

V.  Its  principle  or  object  is  the  matter  of  the  dispute. 


Disputation.  239 

VI.  On  this  are  these  rules: 

1.  Above  all,  a  certain  question  must  be  stated  on  which 
you  wish  to  dispute,  since  any  act  whatever  is  limited 
by  a  fixed  point  if  it  is  to  be  legitimate. 

2.  If  the  disputation  depends  on  the  exposition  of  simple 
matters  even  then  the  aim  should  be  stated  but  there 
should  be  no  argument  on  those  questions  which  are 
inexplicable. 

3.  Here  is  the  scope  of  disputation:    (i)  enquiry  for 
truth,    (2)    illustration    and    confirmation    of   truth. 
Therefore  not  all  questions  are  to  be  disputed,  and 
not  all  questions  to  the  same  degree,  and  not  at  all 
those   that   men   accept    from   natural   instincts   and 
prompting. 

For  example  there  should  be  no  dispute  as  to 
whether  there  is  a  God,  whether  the  whole  is  greater 
than  the  part,  whether  parents  are  to  be  honored,  be- 
cause these  are  principles  whose  truth  is  born  with 
man,  so  that  there  is  no  need  of  enquiry,  just  as  Aris- 
totle rightly  says  in  his  second  Topic  that  those  men 
who  argue  such  things  are  not  worthy  of  considera- 
tion but  of  punishment. 

4.  Disputation  as  we  have  said  is  not  only  a  logical  act 
but  also  ethical,  political,  and  frequently  a  divine  or 
theological  one.    Therefore  the  object  or  material  of 
disputation  ought  not  to  war  against  good  manners  or 
public  peace,  or  piety  and  likewise  we  should  not 
deal  with  scandalous  matters. 

VII.  So  much  on  the  subject  of  disputation :   here  follow 
the  sides  which  are  either  opponents  or  respondents. 

VIII.  On  the  side  of  opponents  are  these  general  rules: 

1.  The  opponent  first  attends  to  the  scope  or  object, 
namely  the  proposition  which  he  wishes  to  oppose. 

2.  The  exact  question  having  been  stated,  he  forecasts 
the  evident  proposition  bearing  on  that  question,  cer- 


240  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

tainly  the  subject  as  well  as  the  predicate  according 
to  the  rules  laid  down  above  for  the  treatment  of  a 
question,  so  that  he  can  see  without  doubt  whether 
the  propositions  are  perfect  or  imperfect,  and  how 
far  he  must  explain. 

3.  The   simple   propositions   having   thus   been   cleared 
away,  he  has  to  come  to  the  arguments  confuting  the 
position  of  the   respondent  which,   must  indeed  be 
thought  over  in  the  same  way,  as  we  taught  about  the 
individual  treatment  of  a  problem. 

4.  Therefore  he  will  separate  the  necessary  arguments 
from  the  probable  ones,  and  cling  the  more  to  the 
necessary  ones. 

5.  He  will  argue  partly  from  the  nature  of  things  inher- 
ent in  the  question,  partly  from  the  sentiment  and 
opinion  of  his  adversary  so  as  by  syllogism  to  up- 
set those   propositions   which   although   not   true    in 
themselves  still  are  true  in  the  opinion  of  his  adver- 
sary. 

6.  In  case  he  reaches  out  to  the  artificial  arguments,  or 
testimony,  effort  is  to  be  made  first  of  all  to  press  the 
adversary  with  his  own  admissions  and  to  show  con- 
tradiction in  his  own  sentiments  and  thus  far  to  con- 
tradict himself  with  himself  either  elsewhere  or  even 
now  in  this  exercise  of  disputation. 

7.  In  case  he  reaches  out  to  the  syllogistic   style,  to 
summon  that  double  method  in  disputing,  ( i )  the  di- 
rect, (2)  the  indirect  or  that  which  leads  to  the  im- 
possible, and  he  will  employ  even  that  most  effective 
plan,  which  is  named  from  opposites,  by  which  indeed 
opposite  is  brought  against  opposite. 

8.  Let  the  opponent  think  carefully  and  for  a  time  before 

ponder  whether  the  adversary  is  going  to  defend  his 
thesis  unreservedly  or  merely  relatively  and  with  cer- 
tain limitations,  also  let  him  ponder  what  limitations 


Disputation.  241 

and  distinctions  he  is  going  to  use.  Thus  he  will  be 
able  the  more  readily  to  offer  attacks  on  the  adver- 
sary's position  or  if  the  adversary  responds  not  by 
drawing  boundaries  but  by  denying,  then  the  oppon- 
ent is  prepared  for  the  proofs. 

9.  But  if  the  adversary  shuffles,  and  is  not  willing  to 
answer  directly  either  for  the  conclusion  or  for  the 
premises,  and  even  wants  to  evade  the  question,  and 
to  draw  off  the  opponent  from  the  purpose  or  to  reply, 
as  we  say,  through  certain  generalities,  and  even  if  the 
opponent  has  such  adversary  before  him,  whom  he 
suspects  about  to  do  that,  let  him  write  his  arguments 
as  far  as  meaning  of  the  word  goes,  and  require  the 
same  of  the  adversary,  and  even  himself  write  his  re- 
joinder either  to  this  or  to  the  conclusion  of  the  ad- 
versary's syllogism.  For  thus  the  adversary  will  be 
the  more  easily  cornered. 

10.  Because  indeed  disputation  is  a  truth  sifter.    No  one 
sifts  rightly  who  shakes  the  sifter  only  once,  and  who 
does  not  whirl  the   sifter  several  times.     For  this 
reason  rarely  is  a  disputation  carried  out  fully  with 
profit  and  credit  if  only  one  objection  is  made  by  the 
opponent  and  that  is  not  pressed  with  great  force. 

11.  It  is  better  to  bring  forward  the  fewest  objections  and 
to  urge  the  same  fitly  and  forcibly  than  to  utter  many 
objections  and  to  press  none — a  policy  logical  stu- 
dents   trained    in     disputation    particularly     follow. 
Many  when  they  are  going  to  dispute  publicly  or  pri- 
vately labor  the  hardest  to  think  up  the  most  argu- 
ments and  they  often  iterate  "I  propose  another  ar- 
gument."    But  I  do  not  approve  that  custom  in  all 
cases,  except  perhaps  with  a  tyro  who  has  never  exer- 
cised himself  in  debate.    With  such  many  things  are 
excused,  since  disputation  is  a  severe  effort  which  de- 

16 


242  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

mands  the  great  exercise  of  mind,  and  an  unusual 
readiness  of  speech. 

12.  In  order  that  you  may  be  able  to  press  upon  and  urge 
successfully  first  of  all  think  whether  or  not  the  adver- 
sary has  given  a  solution,  whether  he  has  really  re- 
sponded or  apparently  at  least.     But  how  many  and 
what  are  true  solutions  and  what  are  only  apparent 
that  is  to  be  sought  in  the  system  of  logic. 

13.  But  it  is  a  matter  of  ambiguity  whether  one  has  really 
answered  when  he  claims  he  has.     (i)  It  is  a  point 
whether  the  response  of  itself  was  directed  to  one  of 
the  three  propositions  of  your  syllogism  either  as  to 
the  form  or  the  substance.     (2)   Whether  there  is 
surely  pointed  out  a  certain  sort  of  fallacy  committed 
in  your  syllogism.     Wherefore  since  the  adversary's 
response  bears  neither  on  the  form  nor  the  substance 
and  if  he  is  not  able  to  point  out  any  fallacy  in  your 
syllogism,  then  you  will  certainly  declare  he  has  an- 
swered nothing,  and  has  chattered  much,  and  you 
will  not  be  anxious  for  a  solution  or  answer,  but  you 
will  always  urge  this  that  he  shall  first  respond,  nor 
will  you  allow  yourself  to  be  led  aside  even  though 
he  asserts  a  hundred  times  that  he  has  responded. 
Finally  if  he  persists  in  chattering  you  will  claim  him 
for  victim,  and  call  for  a  decision  because  he  has  as- 
suredly spoken  much  and  said  nothing. 

14.  If  a  fallacy  should  be  pointed  out  in  your  syllogism, 
carefully  consider  whether  it  is  in  the  form  or  sub- 
stance.    If  the  fallacy  is  in  the  form,  then  that  syllo- 
gistic canon  said  to  be  broken  should  be  examined 
If  the  particular  canon  cannot  be  named,  you  will  per- 
severe in  that  purpose  because  the  syllogistic  form  is 
good,  and  an  assault  on  the  form  is  in  vain. 

15.  If  the  explanation  and  response  rest  on  the  substance, 


Disputation.  243 

think   carefully   whether   on   the   conclusion   or   the 
premises. 

1 6.  If  the  response  bears  on  the  conclusion,  it  will  either 
be  an  instance  of  missing  the  point  (ignoratio  elenchi) 
or  of  many  questions  taken  for  one. 

17.  But  if  it  is  said  to  be  a  missing  of  the  point  (ignoratio 
elenchi),  search  the  canon  of  the  legitimate  opposi- 
tion that  your  conclusion  violates. 

18.  But  if  he  says  there  are  more  questions,  order  that 
plurality  to  be  shown  to  you,  and  even  those  diverse 
questions  which  certainly  are  not  subordinate  but  dis- 
crepant and  separate,  because  if  he  is  not  able  to  show 
those,  no  answer  is  made. 

19.  If  he  attacks  the  premises,  he  will  attack  either  the 
words  or  the  matter  of  the  premises.     If  he  attacks 
the  words,  he  will  attack  either  the  simple  or  com- 
posite ones  or  the  phrases. 

20.  If  he  attacks  the  simple  vocabulary  and  asserts  that  it 
has  many  meanings,   and   even   desires  to  expound 
them,  you  will  reply  that  you  accept  the  most  com- 
mon   usage.     But    if    he    alleges    certain    meanings 
hatched  in  his  brain  demand  of  him  the  localities  of 
those  authors  with  whom  he  thus  sets  aside  a  vocabu- 
lary as  he  said  he  did. 

21.  But  if  he  attacks  the  phrases  and  brings  forward  his 
interpretation,  examine  that  interpretation  according 
to  the  canons  taught  in  the  second  part  of  logic  on 
the  interpretation  of  obscure  propositions. 

22.  But  if  he  does  not  attack  the  words  but  the  thought, 
he  will  attack  either  by  denying  or  by  exacting  the 
reason  of  the  result  or  by  limiting. 

23.  If  he  attacks  by  denying,  he  will  deny  either  the  man- 
ifest matters  or  the  less  manifest.     If  he  denies  the 
manifest  his  reason  is  to  be  demanded,  why  he  denies 
so  manifest  a  proposition,  by  declaring:    "you  ought 


Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 


to  have  a  weighty  reason  for  denying  that  which  is 
so  plain  to  others,"  therefore  let  us  hear  that  reason. 
Because  if  he  cannot  adduce  a  reason,  he  is  to  be  plied 
with  arguments  leading  him  to  an  absurdity.  This 
pertains  to  what  Aristotle  says  :  It  is  allowable  to 
require  from  an  adversary  the  reason  why  he  an- 
swers thus  or  thus,  because  I  am  the  strongest  about 
that  answer  in  which  the  very  manifest  things  are  de- 
nied for  then  it  is  proper  to  ask  the  cause  why  so 
clear  a  thing  is  denied. 

24.  But  if  the  adversary  denies  those  things  which  are 
not  manifest  and  which  need  proof,  then  he  can  be 
harassed    in    no    other    way   than    by    proving   that 
premise  which  is  denied  by  him.    Thus  you  ought  al- 
ways to  be  quick  and  prepared  for  proof  or  for  mak- 
ing syllogisms,  major  or  minor;   especially  the  minor 
which  are   besides  more  often   denied,   because   the 
major  very  often  is  a  general  axiom,  but  the  minor  is 
a  more  special  proposition.     But  specials  are  more 
obnoxious  to  proofs  than  universals. 

25.  If  the  adversary  answers  by  a  denial  of  the  conclu- 
sion in  the  major,  immediately  give  the  reason  for 
the  result  itself,  and  order  him  at  once  to  take  an  ex- 
ception to  that  if  he  has  any. 

26.  If,  indeed,  he  answers  by  the  argument  from  limita- 
tion, you  shall  know  that  repulse  of  such  an  answer 
is  difficult,  especially  if  you  are  not  well  versed  in 
logic. 

27.  Whoever  is  well  versed  in  logic  has  three  methods  by 
which  he  can  repulse  the  limitation  argument.    First 
Method  :   Consider  what  the  adversary  wishes  to  con- 
fine to  the  subject  by  limitation,  and  whether,  I  say, 
he  does  not  imply  contradiction  with  the  subject.    For 
if  he  does,  you  will  say  at  once:    "Contradictions  by 
no  limitation  can  be  reconciled  with  the  subjects  that 


Disputation.  245 

they  contradict."    This  rule  have  well  commended  to 
yourself  in  disputation. 

28.  Second    Method:     examine    the    limitations    for   the 
species  of  limitation  taught  in  the  second  part  of  logic. 

29.  Third  Method:   say  to  the  adversary  if  the  limitation 
is  very  intricate:    "Show  me  some  absurdity,"  which 
should  follow  if  the  proposition  is  not  thus  limited  in 
proportion  as  you  fix  the  bounds.     If  he  can  show 
no  absurdity,  then  the  argument  will  be  cast  aside. 

30.  There  is  another  response  which  is  customarily  given 
by  denying  doubtless  the  universality  of  the  major 
to  which  answer  a  repulse  is  to  be  given  as  a  postu- 
late, namely,  that  in  answering  you  he  gives  an  inap- 
propriate   example    for    destroying   the   universality 
of  the  major.     But  if  he  is  able  to  give  no  example 
or  exception,  he  is  conquered. 

IX.  Thus  far  on  the  duty  of  the  opponent  as  well  in  de- 
fending as  attacking.     Now   follows  the  duty  of  the  re- 
spondent either  inferior  or  superior  who  is  chief. 

X.  The  inferior  respondent  is  properly  the  respondent, 
therefore,  the  special  parts  of  the  response  are  contained 
in  his  duty,  and  comprehended  in  these  canons: 

i.  Let  the  respondent  first  run  over  the  argument  of 
the  opponent  either  in  a  loud  voice  or  quietly,  usually 
in  a  loud  voice,  for  three  reasons :  ( I )  on  account 
of  the  opponent  himself  lest  he  protest  afterwards 
that  he  did  not  advance  such  argument.  For  when 
many  hear  their  arguments  attacked  and  destroyed 
with  ease,  they  feel  ashamed  and  declare  they  did  not 
advance  such  argument.  (2)  He  should  do  this  on 
account  of  the  hearers  in  order  to  arouse  them  by 
this  repetition  to  a  solution  to  be  grasped  by  closer 
attention.  (3)  Finally  he  should  do  this  on  account 
of  the  respondent  himself  in  order  to  get  some  delay 
and  space  for  proffering  a  more  accurate  answer. 


246  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

This  leisure  is  given  to  him  when  he  repeats  the  argu- 
ment of  the  opponent. 

2.  This  was  indeed  the  first  duty  of  the  respondent.    An- 
other duty  is  to  answer  the  arguments  enumerated, 
and  here  first  of  all  he  should  deliberate  whether  the 
argument  militates   against  himself,   or   against  the 
adversary  himself.     If  it  does  not  lie  against  himself, 
he  should  frankly  concede  it  all. 

3.  Finally  he  should  pay  regard  to  the  syllogistic  form, 
and  if  it  is  not  good,  he  should  point  out  the  canon 
violated. 

4.  The  form  considered  and  granted,  let  him  turn  to  the 
conclusion  and  bear  in  mind  these  three :    ( i )  whether 
the  status  of  the  debate  is  correctly  fixed  by  the  op- 
ponent.     (2)    Whether  the  opponent  fairly  opposed 
his  conclusion  to  the  thesis  which  the  respondent  de- 
fends.    (3)  Finally  whether  the  opponent  has  mixed 
several  questions  and  disputes  into  one. 

5.  When  he  has  ended  with  the  conclusion  then  the  mind 
of  the  respondent  will  turn  to  the  major  proposition 
and  he  will  consider  it  in  this  order:    (i)  Whether  it 
is  simple  or  compound,  and  if  composite,  whether  it 
has  a  certain  reason  for  the  result  or  even  exacts  a 
reason  for  the  result  from  the  opponent.     (2)   If  it 
is  a  simple  proposition  he  will  consider  whether  true 
or  false,  will  answer  by  denial,  demanding  proof.    (3) 
If  it  is  a  true  proposition,  he  will  consider  whether 
universal  or  particular,  and  if  particular,  he  will  re- 
ject with  a  given  defence.     Finally,  (4)  he  will  con- 
sider whether  it  is  true  absolutely  or  only  relatively. 
If  it  is  true  relatively  then  he  will  limit  it,  for  often 
there  are  many  limitations  with  regard  to  the  major 
premise,  but   few   with  the   minor.     Therefore,   the 
most  strength  of  the  response  hangs  on  the  major. 

6.  In  the  next  place  the  minor  proposition  will  be  ex- 


Disputation.  247 

amined  to  which,  we  said,  response  is  to  be  made 
rarely  by  limitation,  oftener  by  denial. 

7.  If  the  opponent  argues  unfairly  from  testimony,  then 
the   respondent  has   these  three   resources:     (i)    to 
consider  whether  the  evidence  is  necessary  or  con- 
tingent.    (2)   He  will  weigh  the  words  of  the  evi- 
dence and,  if  perchance  they  are  obscure,  he  will  be 
guided  by  the  rules  already  laid  down.     (3)   If  the 
evidence  is  contingent  and  personal  (bears  on  man) 
let  him   reconcile   it   with  his   own  view   as   far  as 
possible,  but  if  he  cannot  do  so,  let  him  impinge  the 
authority  of  the  testimony  brought  up  by  the  evidence 
of  even  great  authority. 

8.  To  the  direct  response,  as  the  retort  is  made  on  the 
adversary,  he  will  add  the  indirect  and  similar  mat- 
ters which  are  taught  in  the  portion  treating  of  the 
solution  of  fallacies  in  systematic  logic. 

XL  Thus  much  on  the  duty  of  the  lower  respondent  who 
is  properly  called  Respondent.  Of  the  superior  respondent 
or  chief,  are  canons  thus: 

1.  There  are  three  duties  of  the  chief:   (i)   directing, 
(2)   succoring,   (3)   increasing  and  augmenting. 

2.  In  his  duty  of  managing,  if  the  opponent  breaks  the 
laws  of  opposition,  or  if  the  respondent  sins  against 
the  rule  of  disputation,  the  chief  will  warn  the  one 
of  his  duty  and  will  hold  the  other  within  metes  and 
bounds. 

3.  In  his  duty  of  assisting,  if  perhaps  the  respondent  is 
lacking  in  response,  the  chief  will  himself  give  an- 
swer. 

4.  Finally  in  his  duty  of  increasing  and  augmenting,  if 
the  respondent  does  not  answer  with  sufficient  fulness, 
he  will  add  matter,  or  if  the  respondent  is  obscure  or 
involved,  he  will  make  plain. 


248  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

AMERICAN  DISPUTES. 

Of  course  these  tiresome  and  complicated  regulations 
were  not  adopted  in  full  in  American  schools,  or  at  least 
there  is  no  evidence  of  such,  but  the  spirit  of  them  must 
have  been  retained  in  the  collegiate  centers.  Copies  of 
Keckerman's  book  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  United  States  and  his  logic  was  a  textbook  at  Yale 
for  a  time.  It  was  under  their  influence  that  the  youth  in 
this  new  land  of  freedom  developed  their  debating  powers, 
and  their  hair  splitting  faculties  upon  a  multitude  of  ques- 
tions for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half.  There  is  no  full  file 
even  of  those  questions  formally  handled  but  specimens  have 
been  preserved  amply  sufficient  to  revive  the  flavor  of  those 
days  for  us.  As  in  other  departments  of  this  study  we  find 
the  most  data  in  connection  with  Harvard.  A  number  of 
the  questions  were  repeated  literally  from  year  to  year,  again 
others  were  varied  slightly  in  their  terms.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  Professor  E.  J.  Young  classified  a  number  of 
the  themes  for  the  master's  degree  from  1655  to  1791,  and 
translated  the  Latin  into  English.315  The  questions  begin 
with  almost  the  earliest  records  that  we  have  of  Harvard 
University  in  1642  and  1643  °f  which  the  following  half  a 
dozen  are  a  fair  sample: 

1.  Linguarum  scientia  est  ultilissima. 

2.  Hebraea  est  linguarum  mater. 

3.  Lingua  Bracca  est  ad  accentus  pronuntianda. 

4.  Linguae  prius  discendae,  quam  artes. 

5.  Literae  diversae  sonum  habent  diversum. 

6.  Synthesis  est  naturalis  Syntaxis. 

The  following  list  is  culled  from  the  long  series  that  Pro- 
fessor Young  prepared,  adopting  his  classification : 

815  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  June,  1880, 
Vol.  18,  pages  119-151. 


Disputation.  249 

On  Society  and  the  State. 

Is  a  monarchical  government  the  best? 

Are  the  Americans  Israelites? 

Does  a  college  education  incapacitate  a  man  for  commer- 
cial life? 

Is  agriculture  unbecoming  a  gentleman? 

Are  polished  manners  an  ornament  to  a  man? 

Is  the  voice  of  the  people  the  voice  of  God? 

Does  civil  government  originate  from  compact? 

Is  it  lawful  to  resist  the  supreme  magistrate,  if  the  com- 
monwealth cannot  otherwise  be  preserved?  (Sam.  Adams, 

I743-) 

Is  civil  government  absolutely  necessary  for  men?  (John 
Adams,  1758.) 

Is  commerce  in  a  republic  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the 
aristocracy  ?  ( 1 784. ) 

Philosophy. 

Did  primitive  matter  have  form? 

Is  the  act  of  creation  eternal? 

Does  genus  exist  outside  of  the  intellect? 

Is  there  a  summum  malum? 

Is  the  spirit  of  man  distinct  from  his  soul  ? 

Science. 

Is  the  starry  heaven  made  of  fire?     (1674.) 

Does  a  shadow  move? 

Were  comets  created  in  the  beginning? 

Can  metals  be  changed  into  one  another  alternately? 

Is  the  earth  the  centre  of  the  universe? 

Was  there  a  rainbow  before  the  deluge  ? 

Did  the  reptiles  of  America  originate  from  those  preserved 
by  Noah? 

Were  the  aborigines  of  America  descended  from  Abra- 
ham? 


250  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Medicine,  Physiology. 

Is  there  a  circulation  of  the  blood  (An  motus  sanguinis 
circularis)  ?  (1660,  1699;  Harvey's  announcement  was 
made  in  1628.) 

Is  there  a  universal  remedy  ? 

Does  the  heart  make  blood  ?    (1710.) 

Ought  physicians  to  pray  for  the  health  of  the  people  ? 

Is  a  temperate  life  the  best  medicine  ? 

Is  the  color  of  the  Indians  the  original  color  of  man? 

Did  Adam  have  an  umbilical  cord?    (1765.) 

Can  the  whooping  cough  affect  a  human  body  twice? 

Law. 

Can  an  atheist  appear  in  court? 

Is  extortion  becoming  a  lawyer? 

If  Lazarus,  by  a  will  made  before  his  death,  had  given 
away  his  property  could  he  have  legally  claimed  it  after  his 
resurrection. 

Ethics. 

Are  duels  lawful  ?    ( 1690. ) 

Is  it  lawful  to  take  any  interest  for  the  use  of  money  ? 
Is  it  lawful  to  sell  Africans  ?    ( 1724). 
Is  matrimony  necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  State? 
Is  it  lawful  to  subject  Africans  to  perpetual  bondage? 
(1761.) 
Does  dancing  produce  softness  and  urbanity  of  manners? 

Theology  in  General. 

Are  the  Hebrew  points  of  divine  origin? 

When  Balaam's  ass  spoke,  was  there  any  change  in  its 
organs  ? 

Was  the  star  which  appeared  at  the  birth  of  Christ  * 
comet? 

Does  music  promote  salvation? 


Disputation.  251 

Should   the   deaf  be   required  to   worship   God   in   the 
churches  ? 

Does  the  devil  know  the  thoughts  of  men? 

Was  sin  in  the  world  before  the  fall  of  Adam? 

Will  a  comet  be  the  cause  of  the  world's  final  conflagra- 
tion? 

Does  the  falling  of  rain  prove  a  providence  T 

Is  there  a  paradise  distinct  from  heaven  ? 

Are  disputes  relating  to  theology  generally  injurious  to 
religion  ? 

Is  polite  literature  an  ornament  to  a  thelogian? 

Should  the  children  of  unbelievers  be  baptized? 

A  few  may  be  added  to  these  gathered  from  other  sources 
as  follows  :316 

Rhetorica  est  ars  ornata. 

Mathematica  est  disciplina  circa  mensurabilia  et  numer- 
abilia. 

Triangulum  in  piano  est  rectilineum  in  sphaera  circulare. 

Physica  est  naturae  ejusque  legum  explicatio. 

Sensus  externus  est  unicus. 

Bruta  non  agunt  mechanice. 

Aeris  pressura  est  suctionis  causa. 

From  another  source317  we  gather  these  : 

Religio  naturalis  non  est  sufficiens  ad  salutem. 

Bona  opera  sunt  necessaria  ad  salutem. 

Anima  rationalis  est  substantia  spiritualis  incorporea. 

Consolatio  divina  est  necessaria  ad  salutem. 

Of  different  form  although  under  the  same  name,  are  the 
disputations  of  Ezekiel  Cheever,  really  more  of  a  student's 
note  book  on  his  lectures  than  of  formal  discussions.318  His 

814  From  a  large  folio  volume  in  Harvard  Archives  entitled  "Theses 
from  1687  to  1810." 

*"  Wadsworth's  Diary,  in  Harvard  Archives. 
818  In  manuscript,  414  pages  with  a  few  lost,  in  the  Library  of  the 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 


252  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

deserve  room  here  on  account  of  his  eminence  as  a  school 
teacher,  besides  opening  slits  in  the  wall  of  the  past  upon 
the  educational  machine  of  the  time,  especially  supplement- 
ary are  all  the  selections  from  this  volume  upon  the  science 
instruction.  A  few  specimens  are  taken  here  while  the  ex- 
plication of  some  of  the  notions  will  come  later  on. 

An  idem  sit  finis  et  bonum  et  num  omnia  agunt  praeter 
finem. 

Num  detur  finis  simpliciter  ultimus  et  unicus. 

Quomodo  causae  secundae  intendant  finem  ultimum. 

Solvuntur  nonnullae  objectiones. 

De  naturali  hominis  felicitate. 

Quid  sit  voluntarium  et  quantuplex. 

An  quae  fiunt  ex  motu  ira  et  concupiscentia  sint  volun- 
taria. 

De  ordine  et  numero  passionum. 

De  passionibus  simplicibus. 

De  consultatione  et  deliberatione. 

De  natura  et  composito  substrati. 

De  infinite. 

De  loco  et  vacuo. 

In  physicam  specialem  de  generatione  et  alteratione. 

De  anima  sensitiva. 

SOME  EXAMPLES  FROM  YALE. 

While  the  examples  for  Yale  are  not  so  comprehensive  or 
chronological  from  the  beginning  as  those  from  Harvard 
there  is  the  same  general  discipline  and  in  many  instances 
the  identical  questions.  We  have  the  same  puzzle  about 
the  descendants  of  Adam  or  as  expressed  in  Latin,  omnes 
gentes  ab  Adamo  descenderunt.  Later  there  is  another 
Adamic  problem  to  be  solved,  "whether  Adam  knew  that 
eternal  damnation  would  be  his  doom  if  he  ate  of  the  for- 


Disputation.  253 

bidden  fruit."310  Adam  must  have  been  roundly  hated  by 
college  youth  in  those  days. 

There  is  a  very  familiar  question,  still  mouthed  over  very 
vigorously  by  boys  to-day,  left  us  by  Jeremiah  Mason,  who 
took  the  negative  of  it  at  his  graduation  in  1788,  "whether 
capital  punishment  in  any  case  is  lawful."320  In  after  years, 
as  with  many  a  man  in  his  college  reminiscences,  Mason 
became  very  frank  and  genial  on  some  of  his  experiences. 
With  a  slight  glow  of  pardonable  pride  Mason  confesses 
that  he  got  up  his  arguments,  which  made  quite  a  hit,  from 
Beccaria's  Treatise,  which,  happily  for  Mason,  was  very 
little  known  at  the  time.  And  no  doubt  it  was  all  attributed 
to  his  originality  when  his  performance  was  praised  as  the 
best  of  the  day. 

However,  it  is  to  Stiles  that  we  are  largely  indebted  for 
samples  of  Yale  forensics.  It  is  true  they  occurred  after 
our  colonial  days  had  ended  by  the  action  of  1776,  but  as 
it  is  indubitable  that  many  of  them  reached  back  for  perhaps 
half  of  a  whole  century  they  serve  as  a  mirror  almost  as 
distinctly  as  if  they  had  been  recorded  fifty  years  earlier. 
Stiles  was  the  president  of  Yale  and  a  warm  defender  of 
disputations,  generally  presiding  at  the  exercises.  The  fol- 
lowing have  been  gathered  from  his  indispensable  diary,  the 
volume  and  page  being  given  usually  : 

i  "Diluvium  Noachi  fuit  universale."  ) 

r  2  —  277. 

2.  "earning  increaseth  happiness?"        { 

3.  "Whether  a  toleration  of  all  religions  is  beneficial  to 

the  State?"    2  —  287. 


4.  "An  bellum  est  licitum." 

5.  "Are  there  any  innate  ideas? 


) 

V  2  -  "}OO 

?"    \ 


*wKingley's  Yale,  Vol.  i,  page  444,  basing  on  the  Diary  of  Bald- 
win, who  discussed  this  question  at  Yale  as  a  junior  in  1762. 

*"  Stile's  Diary,  Vol.  3,  page  328,  or  Mason's  autobiography, 
page  12. 


254  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

6.  "Whether  the  Scriptures  are  of  divine  inspiration?" 

2—314. 

7.  "Whether  the  same  body  shall  rise  in  the  resurrec- 

tion?"    2—315. 

8.  "An  Diluvium  Noachi  fuit  universale?"    2 — 315. 

9.  "Differentia  inter  Bonum  et  malum  morale  est  aeterna 

et  immutabilis."     2 — 328. 

10.  "Nullae  dantur  ideae  innatae."    2 — 348. 

11.  "Whether  a  private  was  to  be  preferred  to  a  public 

education  ?"     2 — 348. 

12.  "Whether  all  religions  ought  to  be  tolerated  ?"  3 — 255. 

13.  "Whether  there  are  any  innate  ideas?"     3 — 97. 

14.  "Whether  the  planets  are  inhabited?"     3 — 98. 

15.  "Whether  a  public  be  preferable  to  a  private  educa- 

tion?"    3—99. 

1 6.  "Whether  the  change  of  the  Sabbath  from  the  last 

to  the  first  day  of  the  week  be  jure  divino?"  3 — 101. 

17.  "Whether  the  witch  of  Endor  really  raised  Samuel?" 

3— 101. 

18.  "Whether  the  present  passion  for  college  education  is 

for  the  advantage  of  this  State?"     3 — 102. 

19.  "Whether  Congress  ought  to  have  more  power  and 

authority  ?"     3 — 102. 

20.  "Whether  the   will   has  a  self-determining  power?" 

3—103- 

21.  "Whether  the  flood  universal?"     3 — 112. 

22.  Whether  different  climates  be  the  principal  cause  of 

the  different  geniuses  of  mankind?"     3 — 112. 

23.  "Whether  a  representative  ought  to  be  bound  by  the 

instructions  of  his  constituents?"     3 — 115. 

24.  "Whether  the  institution  of  the  Cincinnati  will  prove 

detrimental  to  the  public?"     3 — 118. 

25.  "Whether  confiscation  right?"     3 — 118. 

26.  "Whether  literature  or  the  military  art  be  most  sub- 

servient to  the  public  welfare?"    3 — 119. 


Disputation.  255 

27.  From  this  on,  are  others  on,  whether  best  to  have 

state  religion :  lower  house  too  large  in  legisla- 
ture :  immersion :  on  suicides  sane  or  not :  revela- 
tion be  proved  by  miracles :  to  obey  another  in  state 
of  nature :  whether  Republic  be  preferable  to  mon- 
archy. 3 — 142. 

28.  "Whether  planets  are  inhabited?"     3 — 144. 

29.  "Whether  light  is  invisible?"     3 — 144. 

30.  "Whether  reading  Novelles  is  beneficial?"    3 — 149. 

31.  "Polygamia  non  est  licita."     3 — 151. 

32.  "Whether  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  are  studied 

too  much  in  America?"    3 — 152. 

33.  "If  hole  made  through  earth,  air  exhausted,  would  a 

body  dropped  in  it  oscillate  from  side  to  side  forever 
or  finally  come  to  stop  at  center?"  3 — 157. 

34.  "Whether  laws  prohibiting  emigration  are  for  the  gen- 

eral interest  of  nations?"     3 — 198. 

35.  "Whether  distilled  spirituous  liquors  have  been  of 

more  service  or  injury  to  mankind?"     3 — 209. 

36.  Private  or  public  education  again.     3 — 210. 

37.  "Whether  independence  better  for  U.  S.  than  to  re- 

main with  England:  Whether  to  borrow  money 
to  subsidize  algerines  ?"  3 — 203. 

38.  "Comparison    of    ancient    and    modern    learning?" 

3—2I3- 

SOME  BURLESQUES. 

A  cartoon  nearly  always  deals  with  the  crux  of  an  affair. 
It  seizes  upon  and  emphasises  a  prominent  feature.  It 
means  that  the  attention  is  attracted  to  that  particular  thing. 
Youth  is  the  era  of  exaggeration  and  it  is  some  unusual 
trait  of  a  teacher's  character  or  some  striking  element  in  his 
education  that  he  delights  to  seize  upon  and  magnify.  It  is 
the  instructor  with  some  marked  individuality,  some  strength 
of  temperament,  some  accomplishment  of  power,  that  gets 


256  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

the  "knocks"  on  class  nights.  It  is  the  new  or  the  unusual 
or  the  leading  portion  of  the  curriculum  that  is  caricatured. 
It  is  something  that  hits  the  imagination  or  arouses  the 
attention  that  he  loves  to  take  off — the  strongest  testimony 
to  its  importance  and  the  impression  that  it  makes  at  the 
time. 

It  is  just  such  testimony  that  has  come  down  to  us  from 
one  of  the  early  years  at  Harvard,  1663,  when  an  elaborate 
program  of  disputations  was  got  up  in  this  spirit  of  fun  by 
some  of  the  students.321  It  is  perhaps  the  only  humorous 
product  of  the  sort  that  has  weathered  the  warfare  of  time. 
There  are  some  admirable  keen  little  touches  of  satire.  He 
was  smothered  in  religion,  he  was  covered  with  the  moss 
of  medievalism,  but  the  colonial  boy  had  the  same  youthful 
toughness  of  fibre  within  that  fortunately  the  boy  still  has. 
He  saw  through  the  solemn  mist  and  he  winked  roguishly 
at  some  of  the  grave  shams.  Here  is  a  handful  of  his  barbs : 

Technological — 

The  precepts  of  art  know  neither  rising  nor  setting. 
Nature  is  the  nurse  of  art ;  art  is  the  handmaid  of  nature. 

Logical — 

Logic,   with  respect  to  the  perception  of  ideas,   is  the 

optic  nerve. 

Substance  is  the  caravansary  of  accidents. 
Related  things  are  contemporary  twins. 
The  subject  is  the  porter  of  attributes. 
The  syllogism  is  a  triangle  of  which  the  vase  is  the  con- 
clusion. 
Sophistry  is  the  display  of  arguments  for  sale. 

Rhetorical — 

Rhetoric  is  the  clothing  in  purple  of  reason  and  oratory. 
Monotony  is  rhetoric  without  the  muse. 

821  Edes  Vol.  5,  Transactions  of  Colonial  Society  of  Mass.,  pages 
322-339- 


Disputation.  257 

Mathematical — 

Ciphers  give  what  they  have  not. 

The  geometer  is  an  angular  wretch. 

The  planets  are  the  fixed  stars ;  fixed  stars  are  paralytics. 

Time  is  the  offspring  of  celestial  motion. 

Ethical — 

Ethics  is  a  corrosive  plaster  for  vices. 
Virtue  knows  neither  latitude  nor  decimation. 
Granted  a  good  temperament  of  body,  virtue  follows,  and 
vice  versa-. 

Grammatical — 

Grammar  is  the  door  of  language  and  the  primary  school 

of  philosophers. 

Etymology  is  the  analytical  fracture  of  words. 
Ha  Ha  He  is  a  well-known  expression  of  hilarity. 
Poetic  license  is  grammatical  heresy. 

Physical — 

The  student  of  natural  science  is  the  ripper  up  of  natural 
bodies  and  of  nature. 

Primal  matter  was  fermented  from  quantity. 

Every  form  will  not  join  in  matrimony  with  every  ma- 
terial. 

Civic  CULTURE. 

There  is  a  rather  leaping  vein  of  vigorous  young  blood  to 
be  traced  among  these  questions.  There  are  the  freshness 
and  independence  of  sterling  manhood  that  might  have 
opened  the  dull  eyes  of  English  ministers  if  they  had  scanned 
these  lists.  They  are  the  raw  winds  of  a  coming  storm. 
Disputation  was  a  silly  quibbling  in  most  cases,  a  chewing 
of  old  chips  of  definition  in  many  instances,  but  it  bred 
skepticism,  it  cultivated  criticism,  it  loosened  the  hoary 
17 


258  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

bands  of  conservatism.  The  two  Adamses,  Samuel  and 
John,  were  beardless  forerunners  of  the  upheaval.  A  whole 
generation  before  the  thunder  clap  startled  the  sedate  aris- 
tocracy across  the  water,  Samuel  Adams  was  seizing  upon 
the  very  vitals  of  the  relations  between  the  mother  and  her 
colonies.  At  his  graduation  he  was  questioning  the  right  of 
revolt  against  the  statutes  of  government,  as  to  be  noted  in 
his  question  above.322  His  kinsman,  John  Adams,  perhaps 
not  so  radical  but  more  philosophical  and  comprehensive, 
was  also  dealing  with  the  subject  of  human  control.  We 
don't  know  what  they  said,  much  raking  over  the  dead  leaves 
of  the  past  has  failed  to  bring  to  light  their  words,  but  we 
know  the  general  lines  of  their  thought  and  we  see  the  first 
faint  bubbles  simmering  towards  the  top. 

ACTUAL,  DISPUTATIONS. 

There  are,  however,  copies  of  these  boyish  efforts,  very 
stilted  and  unnatural,  but  all  the  better  for  that  reason  be- 
cause we  can  rely  upon  their  genuineness  as  they  have  come 
down  to  us  unedited  by  the  school  teacher. 

MILTON. 

Milton,  who  wrote  the  greatest  ethic  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, at  least  everyone  says  so,  and  almost  no  one  reads  it. 
has  left  us  several  of  his  productions,  which  have  been  de- 
scribed as  "stately,"  though  really  very  tiresome  and  tedious 
One  of  these,  condensed  below,  is  an  equitable  index  to  all 
of  them.323 

He  took  the  side  of  day  on  the  proposition  "Whether  day 
or  night  is  the  more  excellent?"  After  a  long,  labored  ex- 
ordium he  asserts  that  day  is  better  because  (i)  of  more 
honorable  parentage;  (2)  of  the  greater  respect  of  an- 

m  See  Everett's  Orations,  Vol.  2,  page  177,  giving  such  depth  to 
Adams. 

823  Masson's  Milton,  Vol.  I,  pages  242-246. 


Disputation.  259 

tiquity;  (3)  of  higher  utility  for  human  uses.  Under  the 
first  two  he  goes  into  Greek  mythology.  "How  pleasant  and 
desirable  day  is  to  the  race  of  all  living  things" — "the  birds 
cannot  conceal  their  joy"  in  "sweetest  songs;"  they  "fly  as 
near  as  they  can  to  the  sun ;"  "the  sleepless  cock  trumpets 
the  approaching  sun."  "The  kids  skip  also  in  the  fields  and 
the  whole  world  of  quadrupeds  leaps  and  exults  with  joy." 
"The  marigold  also  and  the  rose  *  *  *  opening  their 
bosoms  breathe  forth  their  odors  *  *  *  which  they  disdain 
to  impart  to  the  night."  "The  other  flowers  raising  their 
heads  a  little  drooping  and  languid  with  dew  offer  them- 
selves, as  it  were,  to  the  sun  and  silently  ask  him  to  wipe 
away  with  kisses  those  little  tears  which  they  had  given  to 
his  absence."  "The  earth  too  clothes  herself  for  the  Sun's 
approach  with  her  comelier  vestment."  There  is  no  wonder 
in  this  because  Day  is  alone  "suited  for  the  encountering  of 
business.  Who  would  cross  broad  seas  if  he  despaired  of 
the  advent  of  day.  Men  would  shut  themselves  up  and 
human  society  would  be  straightway  dissolved."  Poets  say 
justly  that  "night  takes  its  rise  from  hell."  In  the  night  "all 
things  grow  sordid  and  obscure."  Everything,  man  and 
beast,  at  night  hastes  to  its  house  or  cave  and  "shuts  its  eyes 
to  the  terrible  aspect  of  night."  None  go  out  save  "robbers 
and  light — shunning  rascals,  who,  breathing  murder  and 
rapine,  plot  against  the  goods  of  the  citizens  and  wander 
only  at  night.  *  *  *  Day  searches  out  all  criminality," 
but  at  night  you  "will  meet  nothing  but  goblins  and  phant- 
oms and  witches  which  night  brings  with  her  as  her  com- 
panions from  the  subterranean  regions."  "Who,  then,  unless 
he  were  a  son  of  darkness,  a  burglar,  or  a  gambler,  or  unless 
he  were  accustomed  to  spend  the  whole  night  in  debauchery 
and  to  snore  through  entire  days,  would  have  undertaken 
the  defence  of  so  dishonorable  and  so  invidious  a  cause  as 
that  of  night?  You  therefore,  my  hearers,  since  night  is 


260  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

nothing  else  than  the  decline  and  as  it  were  death  of  the 
Day,  do  not  allow  death  to  be  preferred  to  life." 

JOHN  CI^VELAND'S  ARGUMENTS. 

To  another  English  poet,  John  Geveland,  of  whom  Mil- 
ton's nephew  was  jealous  lest  the  fame  of  Paradise  Lost  be 
overshadowed,  the  good  or  bad  luck  has  come  of  having  his 
youthful  effusions  projected  into  the  keeping  of  posterity. 
We  do  not  know  the  title  of  the  one  transferred  here  as  a 
symbol  of  all  the  others,  but  the  tone  of  it  fixes  it  as  one 
side  of  the  battle  as  he  himself  calls  it.  There  is  scarcely 
anything  to  it,  except  verbosity  and  swelling  sounds,  but 
what  better  evidence  could  we  want  for  the  hollowness  of 
so  much  of  education  then.  Both  the  Latin  and  English 
dress  are  displayed.324 

Quos  ne  videre  possum  citra  oculorum  hyperbolem, 
quomodo  vos  compellarem  ?  Etcum  altissimus  vester  gradus 
sine  scala  occupari  nequeat,  quaenam  Orationis  climax 
vestram  scandet  dignitatem ;  vestram  dum  suspicio  in  meo 
vultu  invenio  purpuram ;  et  ingentis  curae  quae  praetandae 
observantiae  me  habet  solicitum,  non  novi  subtilius  argu- 
mentem  puam  stuporem.  Quod  autem  poetarum  Princeps 
Deorum  Senatum  cogit  ad  suam  Batrachomyomachiam,  pari 
audacia  liceat  et  mihi  vos  ad  ludicrum  hos  certamen  nostrum 
invitare.  Umbra  est  haec  nostra  contentio  et  Icon  belli. 
Murium  et  Ranarum  pugna,  quid  aliud  quam  Iliadis  Brachy- 
graphia?  Et  in  Pusillis  istis  Animalibus  Hector  et  Achilles 
(tanquam  Iliades  in  Nuce)  coarctantur.  Ea  siquidem  est 
pensi  nostra  conditio ;  ut  hie  etiam  Mars  et  Venus  implicari 
jacent.  Pugna  est,  sed  ludicra;  Ludus  et  tamen  bellicus ; 
ita  ut  nee  bis  cincta  placeat  Philosophia,  nee  nuda  lythearea. 
Qui  virilli  toga  indutus,  nee  dum  reliquit  nuces,  sed  totus  (  ?) 

824  Oratio  in  scholiis  Publicis  habita  cum  junior  Baccalaureus  in 
Tripodem  disputaret,  Cantab.,  is  the  title  of  his  speech,  on  page 
132  of  Works. 


Disputation.  261 

jocos  crepat,  hujus  ego  Palladem  posthumam  cerebri  sui 
prolem  existimabo.  Qui  in  hisce  Floralibus  solus  Cato,  et 
inter  Philosophiae  flores,  hujus  Minerva  (ad  Amazonis 
instar)  altera  Mamma  destituitur.  Ille  demum  sit  noster 
miles,  qui  et  sese  praestet  ingenii  Velitem,  et  Philosophiae 
Cataphractum ;  qui  et  viriliter  audet  disputare,  et  pueriliter 
cum  Bipode  Tripode  par  impar  ludere.  Me  quod  spectat 
ita  rationem  ad  agendam  subduxi  meam,  ut  utrinque  munus 
moliar  et  subterfugiam,  et  pudibunda  metum  inter  et 
officium  Musa,  et  fugit  ad  salices,  et  videri  cupit. 

English  for  above: 

"Speech  delivered  in  the  Public  Schools  (University,  not 
the  college)  when  as  junior  bachelor  he  disputed  in  the 
tripod. 

"How  shall  I  address  you  whom  I  am  not  able  to  see 
within  the  sweep  of  my  eyes?  And  when  your  highest 
grade  cannot  be  occupied  without  a  ladder.  What  climax 
of  oratory  will  measure  your  dignity?  While  I  look  up 
I  find  your  purple  in  my  face:  ^and  I  am  not  more  plainly 
acquainted  with  the  signs  than  with  the  stolidity  of  the 
great  solicitude  which  makes  me  apprehensive  of  the  rever- 
ence to  be  warranted.  But  since  the  Prince  of  poets  con- 
densed the  Senate  of  the  Gods  into  his  battle  of  the  frogs 
and  mice,  it  is  allowable  for  me  to  invite  you  to  this  game, 
our  contest.  The  shadow  and  image  of  war  is  this  our 
contention.  The  battle  of  mice  and  frogs,  what  else  is  it 
than  the  Iliad  in  embryo?  and  into  these  petty  animals  are 
Hector  and  Achilles  (as  if  the  Iliad  in  nutshell)  com- 
pressed. This,  indeed  is  the  limitation  of  our  task,  that 
here  Mars  and  Venus  lie  entwined. 

It  is  a  fight,  but  a  game.  A  play  and  yet  warlike;  so 
that  thus  neither  double  girdled  philosophy  is  pleased,  nor 
naked  Cytherea.  This  one  who,  clothed  in  his  manly  toga, 
does  not  relinquish  his  rattles  but  cracks  his  jokes,  I  will 
account  Pallas  the  offspring  of  his  brain.  Minerva  is  de- 


262  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

frauded  of  another  breast  (by)  this  one  who,  a  solitary  Cato 
in  these  flowers,  admits  no  buds  of  rhetoric  among  the 
thorns  of  whilosophy.  In  the  end  may  he  be  our  warrior 
who  puts  himself  forward  as  the  scout  of  the  intellect  and 
the  mailed  guardian  of  philosophy;  who  dares  to  dispute 
both  boldly  and  to  play  at  even-odd  boyishly  with  the 
double  footed  tripod.  Whatever  tests  me  I  have  thus  de- 
liberated for  guidance  that  on  both  sides  I  undertake  duty 
and  deception,  and  the  Muse  shameful  between  fear  and 
obligation  both  flees  to  the  willows  and  desires  to  be  seen." 

SOMETHING  FROM  CHEEVER. 

Cheever's  disputations,  as  has  been  said,  are  really  notes 
taken  of  his  lectures  or  textbooks  but  as  they  have  the  title 
of  disputation  they  throw  another  light  upon  the  vast  scope 
of  this  exercise  and  the  solemn  importance  attached  to  it 
in  education.  Here  are  a  few  specimens  from  him  bearing 
chiefly  on  science  and  logic: 

Summa  capitis  libri  secundi  physicorum. 

Liber  hie  secundus  constat  9  capitibus  quae  dividi  pos- 
sunt  induas  partes.  Priore  parte  agitur  de  natura  et  dis- 
crimine  inter  philosophiam  naturalem  et  mathematicam, 
posteriore  parte  agitur  de  causis. 

SUMMA  CAP  i. 

Quaedam  sunt  entia  quae  constant  natura,  qualia  sunt 
plantae,  elementa  etc:  alia  sunt  quae  allis  constant  causis 
qualia  sunt  artefacta.  Priora  habent  in  se  principium  sui 
motus:  posteriora  minime.  Defmitur  natura  principium 
et  causa  motus  et  quietis  illius  m  primo  per  se  et  non  per 
accidens.  Subststantiae  naturalis  materia  et  forma  con- 
stantes  habent  naturam.  Secundum  naturam  sunt  quae 
vulgo  vocantur  proprietates  naturales.  Denique  dicitur 
naturam  esse  duplicem,  materiam  et  forman:  sed  forma 
magis  est  natura  quam  est  actus. 


Disputation.  263 

SUMMA  CAP  2. 

Physicus,  geometra,  astrologus,  in  iisdem  versant  magni- 
tudinibus,  solidis,  punctis,  figuris,  sed  diverse  modo,  physi- 
cus  enim  haec  contemplatur  quatenus  sunt  termini  et  affec- 
tiones  corporis  naturalis  et  quatenus  sunt  in  materia.  mathe- 
maticus  autem  abstrahit  haec  a  materia.  Physici  est  ma- 
teriam  et  formam  simul  contemplare,  quae  cognitio 
utriusque  pertinet  ad  eandem  scientiam,  et  artem  ut  patet 
in  medicina  et  architectura ;  haec  enim  non  solum  con- 
siderat  materiam  domus  sed  etiam  formam,  de  arte  dicitur 
quae  naturam  imitatur. 

SUMMA  CAP.  3. 

Quatuor  sunt  genera  causarum.  Materia  et  forma  quae 
dicuntur  causae  internae:  effiiciens  et  finis  quae  dicuntur 
causae  externae.  materia  est  causa  ex  qua  res  sit  eo  pacto 
ut  insit,  sic  aes  est  materia  statuae.  forma  dicitur  ratio 
essentiae,  sive  id  per  quod  res  est  id  quod  est.  Efficiens 
est  primum  principium  mutationis  et  quietis,  ut  agens 
naturale.  Finis  est  id  cujus  gratia  res  est:  sicut  sanitas 
est  finis  deambulationis.  Praeterea  dicitur  unius  effectus 
plures  esse  causae  per  se,  et  causas  sibi  invicem  esse  causas : 
idem  et  idem  potest  esse  causam  contrariorum.  Causa 
dividitur  in  proximam  et  remotam,  in  causam  actualem  et 
potentialem,  in  particularem  et  universalem.  In  causarum 
investigatione  ad  ultimam  progredi  oportet.  Dein  causae 
particulares  effectuum  particularium  sunt  reddendae : 
Denique  effectuum  universalium  causae  item  universales 
sunt  reddendae,  et  sic  in  caeteris. 

SUMMA  CAP.  4,  5,  6. 

Fortuna  et  casus  (inquit)  sunt  causae  multorum  effec- 
tuum, licet  negent  quidam  qui  dicunt  dari  definitam  causam 
omnium,  sunt  alii  qui  omnia  fortunae  subjiciunt  immo  et 
pisum  cselum  sed  hi  errant  (inquit)  quia  animalia  et  plan- 


264  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

tae  certas  causas  suae  generationis  habent.  Caelum  vero 
eodem  semper  tenore  et  constantissime  movetur.  Praeterea 
(inquit)  alii  sunt  qui  faciunt  fortunam  deam  sed  hominibus 
incognitam.  Non  est  inquit  fortuna  in  iis  quae  per  se, 
semper  eodem  modo  fiunt,  aut  plerumque,  sed  in  iis  quae 
raro  eveniunt  sed  per  accidens,  et  praeter  intentionem,  est 
enim  casus  et  fortuna  in  iis  quae  alicujus  gratia  fiunt  sive 
ea  fiunt  consilio  sive  natura.  Definit  fortunam  causam  per 
accidens  in  iis  quae  per  electionem  alicujus  gratia  fiunt 
casus  autem  latius  patet,  nam  quod  est  a  fortuna,  est  etiam 
a  casu,  sed  non  contra  casus.  sit  causa  per  accidens  in  iis 
quae  alicujus  gratia  fiunt,  Igitur  si  stricte  sumatur  casus  in 
iis  reperitur  quae  agunt  sine  consilio.  Fortuna  vero  in 
humanis  utraque  haec  causa  inquit  est  referenda  ab  effi- 
ciente. 

SUM  MA  CAP.  7. 

Tot  sunt  genera  causarum  statuenda  quot  sunt  quaes- 
tiones  sed  quaestiones  sunt  4,  ex  quo  et  est  materia;  per 
quid,  et  est  forma ;  a  quo  et  est  efficiens,  cujus  gratia,  et  est 
finis.  Denique  inquit  physicum  haec  omnia  perquirere;  et 
proinde  eum  per  onmia  genera  causarum  demonstrari. 

SUM  MA  CAP.  8. 

Licet  naturam  agere  praeter  finem  et  proinde  alicujus 
gratia  unde  non  temere  nee  casu.  Ratio  est  qua  quae  fiunt 
a  natura  eodem  semper  modo  fiunt.  Insuper  dicit  araneas, 
formicas  et  hirundines  sine  consilio  et  impetu  naturae  telas 
texere  et  nidos  condere.  Immo  et  stirpes  folia  emittere  ad 
fructus  tegendos,  et  radices  deorsum  agere  non  sursum. 
idque  alimenti  causa,  quod  e  terra  exsurgunt,  ad  haec  ma- 
teria inquit  quae  est  natura  tendit  ad  formam  quae  est  ejus 
finis,  est  igitur  natura  alicujus  gratia  licet  interdum  suo 
fine  frustretur  ut  in  monstris,  quae  tamen  non  intendit  pro- 
ducere  neque  enim  monstra  producit  nisi  sit  impedita,  et 
proinde  monstra  dicuntur  peccata  naturae.  Dicit  naturam 


Disputation.  265 

agere  praeter  finem  licet  non  deliberet  Ars  enim  non 

deliberat  saltern  agi  tamen  praeter  finem. 

SUM  MA  CAP.  9. 

Necessitas  est  duplex,  absoluta  quae  est  a  materia  sic 
absolute  necessarium  est  serram  esse  duarum  qua  est  ferra, 
hypothetica  quae  desumitur  a  fine  et  a  forma  supposita  sic 
necesse  est  serram  esse  duram  qua  ad  secandum  est  com- 
parata.  utraque  necessitas  reperitur  in  rebus  physicalibus 
licet  veteres  solam  absolutam  ex  materia  amplexi  fuerint: 
imo  necessitas  simpliciter  in  naturalibus  non  est  ex  materia 
sed  ex  suppositione,  sive  fine,  quia  forma  quae  est  finis 
materiae  et  generationis  est  causa  materiae,  cum  forma  sit 
praeter  materiam,  non  contra:  unde  finis  et  forma  praeci- 
pue  sunt  considerationis  in  physica  licet  non  sit  neglegenda 
materia.  Sed  physicus  et  artifex  omnes  suas  ducunt  defini- 
tiones  a  forma  et  fini. 

ANOTHER  HARVARD  DISPUTATION. 

Nearly  a  century  after  Cheever,  in  1760,  we  have  some- 
thing of  the  same  kind  from  a  Harvard  student,  Perez 
Fobes,*85  preserved  in  a  small  oblong  manuscript  volume,  in 
the  original  English,  in  the  archives  of  his  alma  mater.  One 
of  them  after  a  harrassing  scrutiny  is  here  given  in  full.  He 
proceeds  thus : 

"Among  the  various  Disputes  that  have  been  extant  in 
the  world  this,  viz.,  whether  the  earth  moves  around  the 
sun  or  not,  has  been  none  of  the  least.  That  this  our  earth 
is  immovable  or  at  least  moves  not  around  the  sun  was  the 
received  estabished  and  unalterable  opinion  of  our  ances- 
tors, sacred  as  well  as  profane;  who  for  their  excellency 
and  strictness  in  Eusebia  and  piety,  sanity  of  mind,  in- 
variableness  in  judgment,  ingenuity  in  invention,  reason- 

sc  Perez  Fobes,  student  of  Harvard,  1759-60;  small  oblong,  6  in. 
by  3,  open  at  end:  about  30  pp.:  both  lids  gone. 


266  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ableness  in  argument  and  quickness  of  thought,  were  so 
incomparable  that  their  illustrious  names  will  stand  written 
with  indellible  characters  in  the  annals  of  all  succeeding 
posterities — But  my  present  design  is  not  to  panegyrize  on 
their  excellent  endowments,  nor  enter  into  a  detail  of  the 
eulogical  apophyms  (apothegms)  and  excellencies,  but  to 
produce  a  few  arguments  in  favor  of  their  opinion  or  in 
defence  of  the  earth's  immovability,  and  I  shall  first  answer 
to  the  unheard  of  (to  all  humane  ears  grating)  absurdities 
that  arises  from  the  supposition  of  the  earth's  motion. 

"i.  If  the  earth  be  supposed  to  move  around  the  sun  the 
motion  must  absolutely  be  either  violenter  vel  naturalis 
(violent  or  natural)  and  I  see  not  how  it  can  be  natural  un- 
less you  suppose  this  earth  with  all  its  various  appendages 
and  appurtenances  to  be  but  one  single  body  which  is  no 
less  dissonant  to  our  sages  than  incompatible  with  reason, 
for  to  imagine  that  one  natural  motion  agrees  to  complex 
bodies  is  not  only  the  height  of  stupidity  but  it  argues  infat- 
uation in  the  abstract. 

"2.  The  earth's  motion  cannot  be  violent.  For  you  that 
suppose  the  earth  to  move  around  the  sun  allow  it  to  move 
with  a  perpetual  unabated  motion  and  therefore  cannot  be 
forced  because  forced  motion  cannot  be  perpetual. 

3.  If  the  earth  moves  I  ask  what  the  reason  may  be,  why 
a  cannon  [ball]  when  cast  50  feet  in  air  descends  in  same 
place  from  which  it  was  ejected.  Perhaps  you  will 
answer — tis  the  attraction  which  the  atmosphere  has  upon 
bodies.  Then  I  ask  whether  it  is  rational  to  suppose  in- 
visible vapour  to  have  a  power  to  attract  bodies,  and  that 
too  equal  with  the  earth  for  whether  body  be  great  or  small 
it  falls  in  the  same  place  (which  supposition  I  think  very 
absurd).  And  many  more  of  the  like  nature  I  might  pro- 
duce but  not  opinating  myself  to  be  invested  either  with  the 
power  of  enthusiasm  or  exorcism,  therefore  I  am  more 


Disputation.  267 

liable  to  falsify  than  they  that  were  divinely  inspired  where- 
fore I  shall  now  deduce  some  from  those  men  [  ?] 

"From  that  too  much  neglected  and  by  our  hair  brained 
respondents  slighted  book,  the  Bible — and  [in]  that  [that 
is,  the  Bible]  a  certain  eastern  writer  (the  laity  call  him 
David)  whose  writings  are  no  less  demonstrative  of  intri- 
cate enigmatical  truth  than  he  himself  was  inimitably  ex- 
emplary in  piety — speaking  of  the  magnificent  works  of  the 
Lord  says,  see  Psalm,  104,  5 :  Thou,  O  Lord  hast  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  that  it  should  not  be  removed 
Forever,  id  est,  moved  again.  Consonant  to  which  are 
those  words  in  Psalm  1 1 1 17.8,  The  works  of  God's  hands 
are  verity  [  ?]  and  judgment  they  shall  stand  fast  forever 
and  ever." 

"Another  excellent  writer  says:  see  Joshua  10,  13.  The 
sun  stood  still  and  that  in  the  midst  of  Heaven.  Here  per- 
haps our  respondents  may  object  and  say  [thus]  that 
Joshua  himself  knew  to  the  contrary  but  thinking  it  might 
be  more  easy  and  better  adapted  to  the  agricolated  intellects 
of  the  vulgar  to  say  the  sun  stood  still  than  the  earth,  of 
these  I  would  ask  whether  it  is  correspondant  with  reason 
to  suppose  a  man  who  infallibly  was  actuated  by  the  imme- 
diate power  of  inspiration  should  say  one  thing  and  at  the 
same  time  intend  another. 

Shocking  Thought !  The  Almighty  prevaricate  !  Every 
hair  in  my  head  unavoidably  assumes  a  power  of  perpen- 
dicular erection !  When  at  the  same  time  to  suppose  the 
earth  to  move  (had  that  been  his  opinion)  would,  accord- 
ing to  your  own  argumentation  have  been  much  more  con- 
gruent to  the  capacities  of  the  illiterate. 

Secondly.  Our  ostentatious  and  as  they  think  self  abne- 
gating respondents  will  undoubtedly  say  that  Joshua  was 
unskilled  in  such  abstruse  sciences  as  astronomy  and 
geology  are.  From  those  that  thus  imagine  I  may  infer 
and  that  justly  too  that  they  measure  the  longitude  of 


Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Joshua's  knowledge  by  the  latitude  of  their  own  brains,  or 
else  you  would  not  have  the  audacity  or  at  least  the  stu- 
pidity to  suppose  that  a  gentleman  who  was  perchance  not 
only  educated  at  the  schools  of  the  prophets  and  had  for 
his  inspector  [instructor]  and  tutor  no  less  a  man  than 
Moses  but  that  he  who  was  such  a  renowned  Alexandrian 
warrior  and  perhaps  had  reiteratedly  circumambulated  all 
Asia  and  Africa  and  now  that  he  should  be  ignorant  of 
geometry  and  astronomy — such  a  thought  almost  obstructs 
respiration,  my  blood  runs  cold  and  had  almost  laid  stag- 
nated in  my  veins  at  such  uncouth  fanaticism — "And  thus 
I  have  undeniably  proved  immobility  of  the  earth  and 
would  now  just  give  our  numheaded  respondents  a  timely 
caution  and  so  conclude — that  altho  our  assertion  has  been 
sufficiently  proved  even  to  a  demonstration  yet  perhaps 
they  will  pique  themselves  with  a  vain,  groundless  conceit 
that  our  arguments  are  nihil  ad  rem,  yet  I  hope  the  time 
will  come  when  their  now  obscure  intellectual  faculties  will 
be  illuminated  and  they  brought  to  see  not  only  their 
egregious  errors  and  exotic  suppositions  but  also  their  (as 
they  now  think  powerful  arguments)  utterly  refuted  and 
totally  invalidated,  your  assertions  have  been  no  less  daring 
than  impertinent — 

"Now  I  think  it  very  preposterous  that  our  inebriated 
bigoted  and  fascinated  [  ?]  respondents  should  prefer  their 
own  reason  so  much  above  inspired  writing  and  apocalyp- 
tical truths,  as  wholly  to  embrace  the  former  and  entirely 
expunge  the  latter,  and  if  it  be  now  your  real  opinion,  and 
notwithstanding  the  above  absurdities  that  arise  from  such 
suppositions  I  would  amicably  desire  you  to  not  to  com- 
municate this  your  opinion  to  the  commonalty  lest  instead 
of  diminuting  the  camel  to  the  bigness  of  a  gnat  you 
augeate  the  pismire  and  make  a  catemount.  Its  dangerous 
denying  inspired  truth. 

"[Some  illegible   Greek   letters] — and   you   undoubtedly 


Disputation.  269 

find  that  the  greatest  consolation  that  arises  to  those  scrip- 
tures rejecting  infidels  will  be  the  barbed  stimulation  and 
reluctant  compunction  of  self  condemning  conscience  here, 
and  the  inexorable  vengeance  of  incensed  omnipotence 
hereafter." 

He  has  another  question  on :  "Whether  God  at  first 
created  a  great  number  of  every  kind  of  living  animals  or 
only  two  of  each  species,  a  male  and  female,  from  which 
all  rest  proceeded  by  generation  ?"  Then  follow  arguments 
also  in  quotation:  ist  by  analogy  of  men  the  latter  view 
obtains  with  many:  but  2nd  first  view  seems  more  con- 
formable to  scripture  which  speaks  of  fish  as  abundant 
(Gen.  i  :2O,  21). 

THE  MASTER  SATIRIST. 

Again  we  know  what  a  monster  disputation  loomed  up  in 
the  educational  world  since  Rabelais,  who  lampooned  the 
life  of  his  day,  devoted  a  special  chapter  or  so  to  taking  off 
this  pedagogical  craze  which  had  swollen  beyond  the  giant 
size  in  his  day,  before  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
more  than  half  a  century  before  the  Indians  had  been 
startled  by  the  sight  of  the  white  man  on  the  banks  of  the 
James.  The  animal  was  masterful  in  man  in  those  days, 
passions  were  rude  and  unregulated.  One  of  the  world's 
monarehs  of  satire  had  to  choose  words  strong  and  coarse, 
usually  too  broad  and  plain  for  young  ladies  of  to-day,  but 
they  hit  the  mark.  One  of  his  chapters  in  book  two  of  his 
complete  works  has  a  keen  lash  for  the  disputation  about 
him.  He  makes  his  contest  a  silent  one,  carried  on  by 
absurd  gestures  in  which  the  two  competitors  are  wrought 
up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  excitement.  Elsewhere  he  whips 
the  custom  as  when  he  says  through  a  character:  "And  as 
for  disputation  contentiously,  I  will  not  do  it,  for  it  is  too 
base  a  thing,  and  therefore  leave  it  to  those  sottish  sophis- 


270  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ters,  who  in  their  disputes  do  not  search  for  the  truth,  but 
for  contradiction  only  and  debate." 

But  still  better  is  a  sentence  from  an  argument  in  court,, 
as  foolish,  intricate  and  nonsensical  almost  as  some  of  the 
above  from  that  Harvard  boy,  as  we  have  it  in  English : S2* 
"There  passed  betwixt  the  two  tropics  the  sum  of  threepence 
towards  the  zenith,  and  a  halfpenny;  forasmuch  as  the 
Riphaean  mountains  had  been  that  year  oppressed  with  a 
great  sterility  of  counterfeit  gudgeons,  and  shews  without 
substance,  by  means  of  the  babbling  tattle  and  fond  fibs, 
seditiously  raised  between  the  gibble-gabblers  and  Accursian 
gibberish-mongers,  for  the  rebellion  of  the  Swissers,  who 
had  assembled  themselves  to  the  full  number  of  the  bumbees 
and  myrmidons  to  go  a  handsel-getting  on  the  first  day  of 
the  new  year,  at  that  very  time  when  they  give  brewis  to  the 
oxen,  and  deliver  the  key  of  the  coals  to  the  country-girls, 
for  serving  in  of  the  oats  to  the  dogs." 

GRAVE  CONTEMPORARY  OPINION. 

Rabelais  had  strong  associates,  matching  his  sarcasm  with 
their  deliberate  condemnation.  Vives  was  one  of  the 
clearest-headed  and  most  out-spoken  in  showing  the  in- 
herent viciousness  of  the  exercise.  It  leads  to  no  results  he 
said,  it  is  not  mouthing  but  the  silent  observation  of  nature, 
investigation,  careful  questionings  that  advance  knowl- 
edge.327 

A  witty  chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris  scraped  off 
the  gloss  by  a  homely  comparison.328  "What,"  he  said,  "are 
the  contests  of  our  Savants  if  not  real  cock  fights?  One 
cock  struts  up  to  another  and  bristles  his  feathers.  Our 
people  do  the  same.  They  have  not  beaks  and  spurs  like 

848  Book  2,  chapter  u,  Chatto  and  Windus  edition. 
tsr  S.  S.  Laurie,  page  42,  Rise  of  Universities. 
828  Compayre's  Abelard,  page  190. 


Disputation.  271 

the  cocks,  but  their  self  conceit  is  armed  with  a  redoubtable 
ergot."329 

PETRARCH'S  VIEWS. 

This  eminent  author  of  the  I4th  century,  who  has 
been  described  as  "the  first  modern  man,"  did  not  fail  to 
notice  the  hollowness  of  these  argumentative  efforts.  In  a 
kind  of  raillery  and  contempt  he  calls  our  attention  to  the 
performances  thus:  "Look  at  these  men  who  spend  their 
whole  life  in  altercations,  sophistical  subtleties,  in  incessantly 
turning  their  brains  upside  down  in  order  to  solve  empty 
little  questions ;  and  accept  as  true  my  prophecy  concerning 
their  future :  their  reputation  will  pass  away  with  their  ex- 
istence, and  the  same  sepulchre  will  suffice  to  enshroud  their 
names  and  their  bones  "329a 

JOHN  WEBSTER'S  BITING  WRATH. 

At  this  as  well  as  other  branches  of  the  educational  tree, 
John  Webster  hewed  and  hacked  with  all  of  his  soul.  He 
looked  upon  this  jarring  discord  of  sounds  of  a  bellum  in- 
testinum,  or  "a  civil  war  of  words,  a  verbal  digladiation, 
contest,  a  combat  of  cunning  craftiness,  violence  and  alter- 
cation, wherein  all  verbal  force  by  impudence,  insolence, 
opposition,  contradiction,  derision,  diversion,  trifling,  jeer- 
ing, humming,  hissing,  brawling,  quarreling,  scolding,  scan- 
dalizing, and  the  like,  are  equally  allowed  of,  and  accounted 
just,  and  no  regard  had  to  the  truth,  so  that  by  any  means 
they  may  get  the  conquest,  and  worst  their  adversary, 
and  if  they  can  intangle  or  catch  one  another  in  the  spider 
webs  of  sophistical  or  fallacious  argumentations,  then  their 
rejoicing  and  clamour  is  as  great  as  if  they  had  obtained 
some  signal  victory.  And  indeed  it  is  the  counsel  of  the 

**  This  word,  Compayre  holds  in  foot  note,  page  190  is  from  ergo, 
though  others  holds  from  ergot  (spurs). 

*"»  Compayre's  Abelard,  page  213. 


272  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

Arch-sophister  Aristotle,  their  master,  to  speak  ambiguously 
while  they  dispute,  to  obfuscate  the  light  with  darkness,  lest 
the  truth  should  shine  forth,  nay  rather  to  spatter  and 
blurt  out  anything  that  comes  into  the  budget,  rather  than 
yield  to  our  adversary."  Aristotle  advises  "the  respondent 
not  to  take  the  business  grievously,  but  by  putting  those 
things  which  are  not  profitable  to  the  proposition,  to  signifie 
whatsoever  doth  not  appear.  *  *  *  Oh  excellent  and 
egregious  advice  of  so  profound  and  much-magnified  a 
philosopher!  Is  this  to  be  a  lover  of  verity,  or  indeed  to 
play  the  immodest  sophister  and  caviller?  *  *  *  Alter- 
cations and  abjugations  *  *  *  civillation."  In  syllogisms 
"conclusions  beget  but  bare  opinations,  and  putations,  no 
infallible  scene  *  *  *  vaporous  and  airy  sounds  of  words 
*  *  *  vain  glory  of  syllogising  sophistry  *  *  *  they  opin- 
ionate  their  ignorance  to  be  sapience  *  *  *  we  know 
nothing,  yet  nothwithstanding  we  think  we  know  all  things." 
Even  best  logical  systems  leave  "the  intellect  nude  and 
unsatisfyed  because  it  produces  no  certitude,  nor  evidential 
demonstration  *  *  *  fills  the  mind  full  of  opinions  *  *  * 
makes  men  parrot-like  to  babble,  argue,  and  say  very  much, 
but  still  to  remain  nescious  and  ignorant,  so  vast  is  the 
difference  betwixt  putation  and  true  knowledge."3201* 

THE;  PONDEROUS  MILTON. 

Milton's  shafts  were  just  as  numerous  and  more  pene- 
trating as  they  came  from  a  higher  authority.  Milton  was 
one  of  the  finest  flowers  of  medieval  education.  When  he 
spurned  and  ridiculed  the  teaching  of  his  day  he  spoke  from 
the  chair  of  a  master  who  had  been  the  whole  round  in  glit- 
tering success  and  could  put  his  finger  upon  the  delusion 
of  it  unerringly.  He  ransacked  the  arsenal  of  language  for 
missiles  to  hurl  upon  the  curriculum,  which  he  thought  a 

""b  Webster's  Academiarum  examen,  page  33. 


Disputation.  273 

pure  trifling  at  grammar  and  sophistry.  In  disputation  he 
declared  boys  mocked  and  deluded  themselves  with  ragged 
notions  and  babblements  while  they  expected  worthy  and 
delightful  knowledge.330 

A  BATTERING  RAM. 

The  educator,  the  poet,  the  critic,  were  all  backed  up  in 
their  attacks  by  the  philosopher  John  Locke.  Although  a 
bachelor,  an  orphan  at  an  early  age,  without  the  tender  care 
of  woman,  without  the  sympathy  of  a  child  associate,  he  had 
the  insight  of  a  seer  for  the  deep  principles  of  education. 
A  pregnant  characterization  he  leaves  us  on  "that  maze  of 
words  and  phrases  *  *  *  little  or  no  meaning  *  *  *  with- 
out a  progress  in  the  real  knowledge  of  things  *  *  *  fill 
our  heads  with  empty  sounds  which"  no  more  "improve 
our  understandings  and  strengthen  our  reason  than  the 
noise  of  a  jack  will  fill  our  bellies  or  strengthen  our  bodies." 

To  parents  he  says  if  you  want  your  boy  to  have  "right 
notions  *  *  *  right  judgement,"  to  distinguish  between 
"truth  and  falsehood,  right  and  wrong  *  *  *  act  accord- 
ingly *  *  *  be  sure  not  to  let  vour  son  be  bred  up  in  the 
art  and  formality  of  disputing;"  unless,  indeed,  you  want 
him  to  be  "an  insignificant  wrangler,  opiniator  in  dis- 
course *  *  *  contradicting  others  *  *  *  questioning  every- 
thing, and  thinking  there  is  no  such  thing  as  truth  to  be 
sought  but  only  victory  in  disputing."  The  whole  thing  is 
"disingenous,  so  misbecoming  a  gentleman  *  *  *  as  not  to 
yield  to  plain  reason  and  the  conviction  of  clear  arguments." 
It  is  "the  way  and  perfection  of  logical  disputes  that  the 
opponent  never  takes  any  answer,  nor  the  respondent  ever 
yields  to  any  argument,"  unless  he  be  "a  poor  baffled 
wretch  *  *  *  under  the  disgrace"  of  not  holding  his  side, 
which  is  "the  greater  aim  and  glory  in  disputing." 

130  Eggleston's  Transit,  page  246. 
18 


274  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

SOME  DEFENSES. 

But  disputation  was  not  all  one  black  spot,  there  were 
some  specks  of  enlightenment  about  it.  It  was  wooden- 
headed,  it  was  servile,  but  submissiveness,  respect  for 
authority,  was  good  training  among  a  rough,  barbaric 
people.  It  was  also  a  means  of  publishing  ideas  at  large. 
There  were  not  many  sources  of  knowledge,  and  that  was 
a  very  skillful  use  to  make  of  those  few,  helping  the  speaker 
and  also  informing  his  hearers.  It  was  in  time  a  develop- 
ment as  it  was  an  instinctive  revolt  against  the  deadening 
influence  of  mere  memory.  Indirectly,  and  far  down  in  the 
mold  of  ignorance  and  conservatism,  it  began  the  founda- 
tions for  the  modern  temple  of  freedom  of  thought  and 
liberty  of  opinion.  It  bred  skepticism,  it  loosened  the  cere- 
ments bound  around  the  body  centuries  before,  it  encour- 
aged independence  and  made  the  mind  acute.  It  also  gave 
acquaintance  with  the  principles  of  formal  logic  and  was 
an  admirable  practice  in  the  application  of  the  knowledge 
got  from  lecture  and  book.  Within  bounds  it  was  admirable 
training.  The  world  will  never  find  a  substitute  for  wring- 
ing and  torturing  the  very  essence  of  meaning  from 
language.  No  one  can  tell  what  delicate  shades  of  thought, 
what  curious  twists  of  logic,  what  shadows  and  obscurities 
lurk  in  the  corners  of  discourse  until  there  has  been  a  bitter 
contest  between  two  competitors.  The  legislator,  the  advo- 
cate at  the  bar,  the  judge  on  the  bench,  the  jury  in  the  box, 
are  to-day  the  debtors  of  this  old  medieval  process. 

GEORGE  HENRY  LEWIS'S  TRIBUTE. 

The  author  of  the  most  fascinating  history  of  philosophy 
in  our  speech  has  a  gentle  pat  of  commendation  for  this 
exercise,  which  he  had  such  a  fine  opportunity  of  judging 
from  his  long  tramp  through  the  thorny  wilderness  of  philo- 
sophical speculations  from  the  beginning  of  time.  He  apolo- 


Disputation.  275 

gizes  for  it,  stands  up  for  it !  "Something  may  also  be  said 
in  favor  of  that  art  of  disputation,  against  which  so  much 
eloquence  has  been  expended.  It  was  doubtless  carried  to  a 
dangerous  and  ridiculous  excess  and  seems  utterly  worth- 
less and  wearisome  now.  Yet  it  was  to  the  athletes  of  the 
middle  ages  that  parliamentary  debate  has  been  to  the  Eng- 
lish people :  a  good  though  by  no  means  an  unmixed  good, 
and  far  from  the  best."  "To  Scholasticism  we  owe  the 
emancipation  of  Philosophy.  It  was  the  first,  and  at  that 
period,  the  only  possible  solvent  of  Theology.  By  estab- 
lishing the  claim  of  reason  *  *  *  it  brought  into  vigorous 
activity  the  great  instrument,  doubt,  the  instrument  of 
research."  *81 

QuASI-DlSPUTATIONS. 

There  were  several  other  educational  exercises  very  sim- 
ilar to  disputation,  though  none  of  them  attaining  a  thous- 
andth part  of  the  size.  Beginning  in  the  midddle  ages  we 
find  "declamations,"  which  most  likely  did  not  differ  very 
much  from  the  exercises  of  that  name  to-day.  In  some  in- 
stances though  the  two  words  are  almost  confused  so  that 
the  same  exercise  might  have  been  meant.  The  scholarly 
biographer  of  Milton  is  of  the  opinion  that  declamations 
were  utterances  preceding  the  regular  disputation,  a  kind  of 
soothing  harmless  utterance,  such  as  the  chairman  of  a 
political  meeting  might  deliver  just  before  the  joint  debate 
starts.332 

There  is  also  to  be  found  frequent  mention  of  determina- 
tion, clearly  a  minor  act.  As  the  very  term  itself  implies,  it 
was  largely  confined  to  the  definition  of  some  term  and  then 
the  subsequent  maintenance  of  that  view  against  any 
opponent. 

831  Lewes's  History  of  Philosophy,  Vol.  2,  page  4. 
331  Masson's  Milton   Vol.  I,  pages  241,  246. 


276  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

COMMONPLACING. 

Allied  to  disputation  also  was  a  very  popular  pedagogical 
performance  usually  called  commonplacing.  In  reality  it 
was  a  short  sermon,  very  often  delivered  at  the  opening  of 
the  day's  work  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  school.  It  was 
a  logical  outcome  of  the  religious  conception  of  all  educa- 
tion, but  it  was  degraded  by  unscrupulous  students  taking 
advantage  of  the  occasion  to  get  even  with  some  of  their 
instructors  and  some  of  their  fellows  by  indulging  in  scur- 
rilous personalities.383  It  was  sometimes  based  upon  ser- 
mons delivered  the  previous  Sunday,  afterwards  it  rose  to 
the  dignity  of  a  discourse  on  some  text  of  Scripture  and 
the  prig  D'Ewes,  just  two  years  before  the  Pilgrims  set 
foot  on  that  everlasting  rock  at  Plymouth,  notes  the  whine 
of  a  minister  that  the  students  filled  great  volumes  with  col- 
lections on  human  arts  and  sciences  but  ignored  divinity. 

In  other  instances  some  moral  or  theological  subject  was 
often  assigned  for  a  student  to  expound  and  philosophize 
upon,  such  as  man  being  created  in  God's  image  or  the 
creation  of  the  soul.  It  is  to  this  quaint,  soul-exposing 
diarist,  Samuel  Sewall,  that  we  owe  our  gratitude  for  a 
definition  of  commonplacing,  which  he  says  "denotes  the 
reducing  and  treating  of  topics  of  theology,  philosophy,  etc., 
under  certain  common-place  or  general  heads,  and  is  recog- 
nized as  follows  in  Laws,  Liberties  and  Orders  of  Harvard 
College,  1642-46,  as  an  exercise  expected  at  certain  times 
of  Resident  Bachelors  as  well  as  Sophisters  among  the 
undergraduates."  334 

This  eternal  habit  of  moralizing  and  sermonizing  was 
dubbed  analyzing  by  Wadsworth  in  certain  places  of  his 
journal,  interchanging  that  with  common-placing. 

883  J.  B.  Mullinger,  Vol.  2,  page  472,  of  his  Cambridge. 

884  Samuel  Sewall's  Diary,  1674,  i"  Vol.  5,  5th  series,  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  pages  4,  5,  51. 


Disputation.  277 

COMMON-Pr,ACE)    BOOKS. 

It  was  a  very  soft  transition  from  the  dictation  of  text- 
books to  the  making  of  common-place  books.  Perhaps  they 
might  be  more  accurately  portrayed  as  note  books,  covering 
daily  events,  summaries  of  lectures,  notes  on  books  read, 
and  references  to  sermons,  in  short  an  index  to  a  man's 
life.  Milton  has  left  one  in  which  he  has  great  classes,  such 
as  politics,  Republica,  Leges,  Rex,  Tryannus,  Nobilitas, 
covering  such  heads  as 

"Malum  Morale" 

"De  viro  bono" 

"De  duellis" 

"De  morte" 

"De  curiositate."  335 

His  comments  will  range  from  a  few  words  to  a  page  or  so, 
though  the  most  are  abbreviated. 

As  a  new  world  counterpart  of  Milton  we  have  the  topics 
of  the  little  common-place  book  of  Perez  Fobes,  a  student 
at  Harvard  in  1760,  the  contents  of  his  thin  note  book 
being  appended  below,  the  three  numbered  heads  lacking 
being  covered  by  his  disputation  above. 

4.  Has  another  on  "The  soul  thinks  always?"     Several 

pages. 

5.  Quotes  poetry  on  grace  and  patience. 

6.  Notes  an  excellent  sermon  heard. 

7.  Other  sermons;   abstracts  one. 

8.  [Starting  at  other  end,}    some  pages,  diary  mixed 

with  Latin. 

9.  Moralising.     "If  we  would  ever  get  to  Heaven  we 

must  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith."     [Others  fol- 
low.] 
10.  Bought  tea,  picture. 

385  Camden  Society,  Volume  XVI,  1876,  edited  by  Alfred  J.  Horn- 
wood,  pp.  60,  including  original  index. 


278  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

11.  Notes  on  geography  lesson  that  earth  so  large,  other 

dimensions. 

12.  Notes  sermons. 

13.  Notes  on  Joseph,  Potiphar's  wife. 

14.  Diagram  of  "solar  system  with  the  orbits  of  five  re- 

markable comets." — Table  of  distances  of  planets 
from  stars:  planetary  diameters:  notes  on  astron- 
omy, as  distances,  sizes,  seasons,  revolutions,  etc., 
concluding  with  pious  ejaculations  on  greatness 
and  power  of  God,  etc. 

15.  Notes,  examined  by  President,  Tutors,  and  overseers. 

1 6.  Constantly  notes  derivation  of  words. 

17.  Notes  on  history  and  geography. 

18.  "To  collect  books"  "to  examine  them." 

19.  All  along  notes  "our  question  this  day  was." 

Specimen,   "Idae   clarae   et   distinctae   sunt   cri- 
terion veritatis." 

20.  Notes  on  physics — pressure  of  air. 

21.  Geometrical  figures. 

22.  Celebration  over  taking  of  Quebec. 

23.  Notes  on  studying  Homer. 

24.  "Was  ordained." 

25.  25  pp.     Definitions:    "cascades,"  "archetype,"  "Bal- 

last," "brigade,"  etc.,  "athletic,"  "bibulous;"  ap- 
parently taken  from  dictation,  as  some  words 
copied,  not  defined. 

LAST  TRACES  OF  COMMONPLACING. 

Naturally  if  this  custom  survive  anywhere  it  would  be 
fittingly  in  connection  with  divinity,  with  which  it  started 
and  with  which  it  was  linked  hand  in  hand  throughout  its 
career.  Tucked  away  in  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, over  half  a  century  ago,  was  the  remnant  of  this  cen- 
tury-old practice.  The  Fellows  of  that  institution  were  in 
the  habit  of  giving  talks  or  short  sermons  on  Monday  morn- 


Disputation.  279 

ings  in  the  chapel,  based  on  biblical  texts,  covering  such 
notions  as  happiness,  baptism,  study  of  the  past,  times  of  ig- 
norance, purging  of  the  conscience,  we  know  in  part,  etc.336 

DIED  WITH  COIXJNIAUSM. 

As  a  formal  part  of  the  curriculum  disputation  expired 
substantially  with  the  close  of  our  colonial  period.  Death 
was  not  sudden,  it  came  gradually  with  the  intrusion  of 
other  ideas.  It  was  the  passing  away  of  an  old  friend 
whom  we  mourn,  although  his  day  of  usefulness  has  de- 
parted. There  is  a  very  plaintive  wail  from  President  Stiles 
of  Yale  in  1789:  "the  seniors  have  had  but  one  syllogistic 
disputation  this  year  and  perhaps  half  a  dozen  last  year. 
There  was  only  one  last  commencement — none  this.  Thus 
farewell  syllogistic  disputation  in  Yale  College  much  to  my 
mortification."  337 

Six  years  later  at  Leicester  Institute,  in  Connecticut,  is 
another  note  of  remorse  when  the  trustees  desired  dispu- 
tations to  be  included  in  the  school  exhibitions.888  These 
two  are  certainly  among  the  latest  instances  of  the  survival 
of  this  old  medieval  scholastic  exercise  among  our  Protest- 
ant institutions. 

REMNANTS  IN  ENGLAND. 

In  England,  however,  there  is  evidence  of  its  continuing 
much  longer,  even  to  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  At  Westminster,  "those  tournaments  of  Latin 
and  logic,  in  which  Queen  Bess  was  want  to  reward  a  suc- 
cessful champion  with  a  purse  of  gold  from  her  virgin  hand." 
were  still  carried  out  by  boys  who  stood  forth  to  challenge 
for  their  schools.  The  act  was  given  with  practically  all 

"'Loci  Communes,  by  C.  A.  Swainson  and  A.  H.  Wratislaw,  1848. 

m  Stiles's  Diary,  Vol.  3,  page  360. 

08  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  28,  page  799. 


280  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

the  fullness  of  several  centuries  earlier,  in  some  instances 
lasting  from  early  morn  till  nine  at  night.339 

In  some  of  the  divinity  work  at  Oxford  the  custom  re- 
mains, though  of  course  greatly  modified.  "Disputations  in 
divinity  are  still  delivered,  though  without  opponents,  by 
candidates  for  divinity  degrees,"  thus  we  learn  from  a  late 
newspaper  letter.3*0 

RELIGIOUS  DISPUTATIONS. 

In  the  education  of  Catholic  priests  disputation  is  still  a 
favorite  discipline.  It  was  recorded  of  Pope  Leo  XIII 
that  he  was  very  successful  when  preparing  for  his  clerical 
life  in  disputation  in  public.341  The  Jesuits  are  rigorously 
drilled  in  Latin  disputation  during  their  educational  prepa- 
ration. Great  stress  is  laid  upon  it  at  Woodstock,  Mary- 
land, and  also  in  St.  Louis.  President  Roosevelt  heard  an 
exercise  in  the  latter  only  a  few  years  ago,  "the  grand  act," 
a  defense  of  Catholic  theology  against  all  comers.8*2 

IN  GEORGETOWN  UNIVERSITY. 

Not  only  in  the  theological  courses  of  Catholic  institutions, 
but  also  in  some  of  the  secular  departments  is  disputation 
still  carried  on.  In  one  of  them  at  least,  Georgetown  Univer- 
sity, Washington,  D.  C.,  can  be  witnessed  several  times  a 
year  this  medieval  educational  exercise,  conducted  with  all 
of  the  formality  and  rigidity  possible  after  these  centuries  of 
modifications,  juniors  once  weekly,  seniors  twice.  But  the 
essentials  are  still  there  and  the  incidentals,  so  far  as  the  evi- 
dence can  restore  the  olden  times,  are  but  slightly  altered. 
There  on  a.  bluff  overlooking-  the  Potomac,  in  the  quiet  and 
solemnity  of  an  academic  hall,  before  an  assemblage  of 

889  Public  Schools,  page  182. 
810  The  Nation,  August  23,  1906,  page  163. 
mj.  B.  O'Reilly's  Leo  XIII,  page  77. 
***  St.  Louis  Republican,  April  30,  1903. 


Disputation.  281 

teachers  and  student,  one  feels  transported  back  across  the 
intervening  periods  to  the  atmosphere  of  three  or  four  hun- 
dred years  ago,  as  the  earnest  youthful  contestants  face 
each  other  and  in  a  logical  combat  struggle  for  the  mastery, 
finally  beating  out  the  last  grain  of  thought  from  the  ques- 
tion at  issue,  all  done  in  the  calm,  passionless  manner  of 
automatons  that  are  pure  intellect  only.  The  program  for 
one  of  these  frays,  on  a  bright  bracing  fall  day  is  shown 
below,  though  not  all  the  points  were  worked  over  at  that 
time.  Though  the  issues  are  in  Latin  the  argument  was  in 
English. 

THESES 


IN 

COLLEGIO  GEORGIOPOLITANO 
Die  XXIV.  Nov.,  MCMVI. 


I.          Deus  solus  est  finis  ultimus  objectivus  hominis. 
II.  (a)   Ignorantia  invincibilis,  sive  juris  sive  facti,  tollit 
voluntarium,  ac  proinde  acto  ex  tali  ignorantia 
facta  non  est  imputabilis  ad  culpam. 
(&)  Ignorantia  vincibilis  non  excusat  a  peccato. 

III.  Intrinsecum    discrimen    inter    bonum    et    malum 

morale  intercedit. 

IV.  Moralitas  non  est  desumenda  ex  utilitate,  nee  pri- 

vata,  nee  publica. 
V.          Moralitas  actuum  desumitur  ex  objecto,  fine  et  cir- 

cumstantiis. 

VI.  (a)  Existit  lex  aeterna. 
(&)  Existit  lex  naturalis. 
Defendet : 
Objicient: 
Datur  cuilibet  facultas  objiciendi. 


282  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

It  will  be  noted  that  two  of  the  terms  are  different  from 
their  ancient  progenitors  as  we  have  here  defendet  and 
objicient  instead  of  respondens  and  opponens.  The  plural 
of  the  verb  is  due  to  the  presence  of  two  objectors.  In  the 
actual  verbal  clash  there  must  also  have  been  a  considerable 
gap  between  to-day  and  yesterday.  There  was  nothing  of 
the  lively  snap  and  fire  that  the  authorities  record  of  medie- 
val battles.  Here  these  gallant  young  knights  confine  them- 
selves to  a  series  of  propositions  in  syllogistic  form,  with 
every  vestige  of  personal  element  sternly  excluded.  But 
Keckerrnan,  with  his  complicated  directions,  came  to  mind 
when  each  side  before  answering  the  other  would  solemnly 
and  carefully  repeat  almost  the  exact  words  of  the  reason 
just  given,  before  offering  his  response.  In  all  of  this 
repetition  the  third  person  was  used. 

A  taste  of  former  feasts  is  afforded  by  a  relic  in  the 
library,  a  framed  schedule  of  a  dignified  disputation  more 
than  a  century  ago,  large  and  imposing,  two  feet  long  by 
nearly  the  same  width,  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  Europe 
A  Catholic  author  also  has  recently,  in  his  treatment  of 
theology,  laid  down  minute  directions  for  the  proper  ob- 
servance of  disputation  at  the  present  day,  not  as  didactic 
and  educative  as  Keckerman,  and  happily  not  as  swollen.348 

SURVIVALS  AT  PRESENT. 

No  branch  of  knowledge  is  entirely  lost.  It  may  decay, 
it  may  be  even  considered  dead,  it  may  be  snatched  off  and 
cast  aside,  but  there  are  rootlets  or  fibres  or  jagged  ends 
and  rough  edges  that  stand  as  testimony  of  what  has  been. 
Education  has  broadened  enormously  and  in  an  ordinary 
use  of  words  we  can  speak  of  certain  studies  having  dropped 
out,  but  they  have  all  left  their  impress  behind,  sometimes 
obscured  so  that  they  are  practically  forgotten. 

***  S.  J.  Hunter,  Outline  of  Dogmatic  Theology,  three  volumes  in 
all.  Pages  514-518  of  Vol.  i. 


Disputation.  283 

Disputation,  in  some  of  its  influence,  is  still  with  us.  The 
theses  for  the  doctorate  in  our  great  universities  grew  out 
of  medieval  disputation.  To-day  the  candidate  faces  a  board 
of  examiners  ready  to  maintain  views  he  has  advanced  in 
his  dissertation.  Half  of  the  exercise,  it  is  true,  has  gone, 
there  is  no  opponent.  Our  seminaries  are  the  breeding 
places  for  these  exercises,  preparing  young  men  for  this 
contest. 

Our  debating  societies,  in  the  patterns  of  our  legislatures, 
sprang  in  part  from  the  old  custom.  Stiles  speaks  of  two 
library  companies  in  Yale  which  used  to  hold  their  quar- 
terly exhibitions  separately,  very  likely  the  faint  beginnings 
of  the  debating  clubs.344 

The  most  notable  survival,  however,  is  the  new  interest 
being  manifested  in  forensics  by  the  number  of  institutions 
in  this  land.  Some  of  them  require  every  student  to  take 
some  part  in  the  work,  stipulating  the  number  of  times  de- 
bates are  to  be  held  during  the  session.  A  wearisome  string 
of  text-books  has  come  out  of  late  years.  The  preface  and 
the  directions  generally  read  very  much  like  their  fore- 
runners of  the  middle  ages.  One  of  the  latest  is  almost  as 
minute  as  Keckerman,  just  as  tiresome  and  just  as  useless. 
We  might  groan  in  agony  to  see  this  reversal  to  a  discarded 
study,  a  lusty  man  trying  to  go  back  to  the  knee  breeches 
and  jacket  of  his  youth. 

SUMMARY. 
THE  FOOD  THAT  MADE  THE  GIANTS. 

A  unique  and  remarkable  educational  leader,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  new  world,  rather  early  in  his  career  wanted 
to  know  what  fare  great  Revolutionary  captains  had  fed 
upon  that  had  made  them  so  capable  in  a  grave  emergency. 
Mr.  D.  C.  Gilman,  in  1871,  in  an  academic  utterance,  had 

844  Stiles's  Diary,  Volume  3,  page  337. 


284  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

said:  "It  will  be  a  curious  inquiry  for  some  philosophical 
writer  on  the  intellectual  progress  of  this  country  to  ascer- 
tain what  were  the  themes,  the  text-books,  the  methods  of 
instruction  and  tuition  which  prevailed  in  the  American  col- 
leges prior  to  the  Revolution;  what  sort  of  instruction  at 
Cambridge  filled  Samuel  and  John  Adams  with  their  notions 
of  civil  liberty ;  what  sort  of  culture  at  New  Haven  brought 
Jonathan  Edwards  to  his  lofty  rank  among  the  theologians 
of  this  country  and  of  Scotland ;  what  discipline  at  Prince- 
ton fitted  James  Madison  to  exert  such  an  influence  upon 
the  formation  of  the  Constitution ;  and  what  academic  drill 
at  Columbia  College,  in  New  York,  made  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton the  founder  of  our  national  credit  and  our  financial 
system."  345 

It  is  not  within  the  limits  of  this  study  to  attempt  an 
answer  in  full  to  this  pregnant  utterance  as  so  much  of  the 
strength  of  these  eminent  characters  was  developed  after 
they  had  left  the  care  of  the  schoolmaster,  but  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  consider  what  mental  nourishment  they  got 
in  school  that  fitted  them  for  the  huge  tasks  they  performed. 

It  was  another  sky  over  their  heads,  another  atmosphere 
around  them,  another  problem  for  them  to  solve.  It  was 
an  age  of  discussion,  not  of  investigation ;  it  was  a  war  of 
words,  not  a  research  into  nature.  Men  harassed  their 
souls  to  know  what  the  masters  meant,  they  did  not  gather 
their  forces  and  concentrate  their  efforts  to  learn  the  results 
of  science.  For  the  epochs  past  they  had  been  dealing  with 
terms  of  speech,  they  had  been  fashioning  their  language, 
they  had  been  sharpening  their  dialectical  wits,  they  had 
been  polishing  the  symbols  of  sound.  They  had  been  delv- 
ing in  the  past  and  they  had  begun  to  weigh  the  value  of 
tradition  and  custom.  They  were  hoarding  their  powers 
to  break  the  crust  of  conservatism. 

3ts  H.  B.  Adams,  History  in  American  Colleges  and  Universities, 
Circular  No.  2,  Bureau  of  Education,  1887,  page  50,  quoting  from 
Oilman's  Cornell  address. 


Summary.  285 

Their  Latin,  their  Greek,  their  Hebrew,,  their  linguistic 
Study  generally,  had  given  them  a  verbal  razor  for  splitting 
the  hairs  of  discussion.  Logic,  metaphysics,  and  theology 
had  whetted  their  ardor  still  more  keenly  and  had  furnished 
them  with  great  principles,  which  became  bulwarks  of  safety 
to  fall  back  upon.  The  little  history  they  had  supplied 
them  with  another  form  of  argument,  the  most  convincing 
to  the  average  human  mind,  that  of  example.  The  shreds 
and  patches  of  science  that  they  got  hardened  them  in  their 
respect  for  authority.  The  formal  rules  and  processes  of 
mathematics  that  they  memorized  set  them  in  crystals  of 
unchangeable  faith. 

Thus  they  stood,  with  trained  memory,  fortified  with 
great  axioms,  equipped  with  flexible  and  adaptive  language, 
panoplied  with  hard  dry  logic.  But  all  this  arsenal,  choked 
with  the  lore  of  the  ancient  world,  needed  the  hand  of  ac- 
tivity, the  power  to  do.  The  gymnasium  lacked  the  athlete, 
and  disputation  met  this  want.  All  of  this  outfit  was  mere 
lumber  and  rubbish  unless  it  could  be  transformed  into 
the  energy  of  accomplishment.  In  this  contest  the  powers 
of  the  mind  were  put  to  service.  It  was  only  a  game,  it  is 
true,  over  a  fantastic  difference,  but  just  as  friendly  trials 
of  strength  develop  for  future  combats  of  importance  so 
these  mimic  battles  taught  how  to  win. 

The  contest  with  England  hinged  upon  the  construing  of 
language,  the  meaning  of  statutes,  the  essence  of  practice 
and  customs.  It  was  a  great  debate  as  to  the  rights  of  each 
side  in  which  ultimate  decision  rested  upon  the  deep  founda- 
tion stones  of  human  conduct.  The  two  Adamses,  Madison, 
Jefferson,  and  their  brethren  were  at  home  in  this  field. 
They  knew  how  to  thrust,  to  parry,  to  ward,  to  defend,  to 
attack  with  the  pen,  because  they  had  been  at  that  form  of 
warfare  all  of  their  days.  They  knew  how  to  build  an 
argument,  to  construct  a  logical  fortress;  that  had  been 
their  pastime  since  youth.  They  could  marshal  words, 


286  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

they  could  explore  the  past,  thtv  could  clinch  with  quota- 
tion or  with  reference  to  an  overshadowing  name ;  they  had 
been  doing  that  for  years.  They  could  apply  doctrines,  they 
could  draw  conclusions  from  accepted  premises,  they  could 
formulate  new  lines  of  departure,  because  these  things  had 
been  their  meat  and  drink. 

But  when  they  had  tramped  the  whole  matter  out,  had 
laid  down  the  philosophical  guide  lines,  had  triumphed  over 
the  king  and  his  stupid  advisors,  had  taken  the  old  mudsills 
and  reared  upon  them  another  edifice  for  the  housing  of 
a  new  nation,  their  work  was  done  and  has  been  done  for 
all  time.  With  infinite  care  they  fixed  the  relations  for 
the  different  elements  in  this  household,  but  in  all  of  their 
labor  they  got  very  little  from  the  beaten  road  that  they  had 
walked  in  from  their  infancy.  They  were  still  dealing  with 
the  maxims  and  the  environment  of  human  behavior,  they 
were  still  using  the  tools  they  had  been  supplied  with  in 
philology,  in  ethics,  and  in  elementary  philosophy.  They 
were  victors  over  their  antagonists  across  the  water  because 
they  were  more  powerful  in  elevated  discussion.  They  had 
struck  against  the  shell  that  cramped  the  growth  of  the 
human  race  and  shattered  it.  Without  knowing  it  they  had 
ended  one  epoch  in  the  struggle  of  humanity  upwards. 
With  the  implements  forged  for  them  in  the  medieval 
school  they  reared  a  mighty  fabric  as  an  example  that  men 
could  live  in  unity  and  peace  under  their  own  government. 
All  the  advances  towards  human  liberty  since  then  on  the 
face  of  the  globe  have  been  lighted  by  the  reflection  from 
the  structure  they  erected.  The  school  did  its  work,  and 
they  did  theirs,  and  we  are  the  debtors  of  both. 

Man  was  emancipated  from  his  own  past.  Since  then 
he  has  turned  to  science.  Getting  control  of  himself  he 
sought  control  of  nature.  He  had  done  forever  with  raking 
and  gloating  in  the  charnel  houses  behind,  he  set  his  face 
to  the  morning  light  ahead.  He  has  seen  more  in  one  cen- 
tury than  his  fathers  saw  in  twenty. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The  following  list  by  no  means  includes  all  the  books 
handled  in  the  course  of  this  investigation.  A  good  many 
that  furnish  an  important  idea  or  suggestion  are  not  repre- 
sented here,  as  the  limitation  of  space  required  some  selec- 
tion to  be  exercised.  After  much  deliberation  it  was  deemed 
best  to  arrange  all  of  them  alphabetically  by  the  authors 
where  possible,  with  enough  of  cross  references  to  enable 
any  title  to  be  found.  A  classification  would  have  necessi- 
tated a  painful  amount  of  repetition,  as  in  many  instances 
the  same  authority  would  be  used  for  a  half  dozen  or  more 
of  the  previous  heads.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  express  a 
lively  sense  of  gratitude  even  though  to  inanimate  institu- 
tions, but  this  task  could  never  have  been  accomplished 
without  the  cheerful  assistance  of  librarians  and  their  staffs 
in  all  of  the  large  libraries  in  the  eastern  part  of  this  country. 
A  special  acknowledgment  is  due  to  one,  very  much  smaller 
than  some  of  the  others,  but  a  diamond  mine  for  educational 
purposes,  especially  in  text-books — the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society,  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  The  different 
manuscript  sources  are  indicated  below,  though  it  is  only 
fair  to  state  that  along  that  line  Harvard  was  found  the 
most  beneficial.  This  is  only  natural  considering  that  it  is 
the  oldest.  Unfortunately  the  early  records  of  William  and 
Mary  were  destroyed  by  fire,  a  fate  that  the  Harvard  library 
suffered  also,  especially  in  1765,  but  fortunately  the  archives 
have  been  pretty  well  preserved. 

The  titles  below  have  all  been  condensed,  just  enough 
being  retained  to  enable  the  book  to  be  found  in  a  library  by 
any  investigator  so  minded.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to 
satisfy  the  technical  bibliographer,  as  he,  if  capable,  is 
amply  able  to  care  for  himself,  and  further  would  never  rely 
on  another's  collation. 


288  Our  Colonial  Curriculum. 

ABBOT,  ABIEL.    History  of  Andover.    1829. 

ABELARD.     See  Compayre. 

ADAMS,  HERBERT  B.  William  and  Mary.  U.  S.  Bureau 
Educ.,  1887. 

ADAMS,  HERBERT  B.  History  in  American  colleges  and 
universities.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  No.  2,  1887. 

ADAMSON,  JOHN  WILLIAM.  Pioneers  of  modern  educa- 
tion. 1905. 

ALCOTT,    A.  BRONSON.     New  Connecticut.      1887. 

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AMERICAN  MAGAZINE.     Vol.i,  1743-44. 

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First  page  has,  as  noted  in  text : 

"Ingenious   Cocker,  now  to   rest  thou'rt  gone, 
"No  art  can  show  thee  fully,  but  thine  own. 
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19 


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known,  perhaps  only  three,  Congressional  Library  copy 
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pupil's  copy  as  many  of  examples  have  been  worked  out 
in  ink  in  the  blank  spaces  evidently  left  for  that  purpose. 
Possibly  Thomas  Jones  did  this  as  his  name  appears  on 
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amined and  something  found  in  these  bearing  on  mathematics  and 
disputation.  No.  32  of  these  biographical  contributions,  edited  by 
J.  Winsor,  has  a  list  of  mathematical  theses  of  the  two  upper  classes 
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Copy  in  Boston  but  none  in  Congressional  Library  of  this  study 
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HELVICI,  CHRISTOPHORI,  V.  C.  Theatrum  historicum  et 
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Of  course  this  is  hardly  a  tenth  of  what  Helwig  has  on  his  folio 
title  page,  but  enough  to  indentify  him ;  printed  on  one  side  of 
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HELVICUS,  CHRISTOPHER.  The  historical  and  chronological 
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Author  also  wrote  the  accidence,  below,  of  which  so  few  copies 
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LEACH,  ARTHUR  F.  English  schools  at  the  reformation. 
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dignified  and  valuable  character,  with  indexes  at  intervals  coming 
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Immense  folio,  with  some  dozen  maps,  and  hundreds  of  illustra- 
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on  a  spit.  Book  of  special  interest  to  Americans  as  a  part  of  it, 
rendered  into  English  three  years  later,  in  1553,  is  described  as  "the 
second  English  book  on  America,"  appearing  thus : — 

MUNSTER,  SEBASTIAN.  "A  treatyse  of  the  newe  India  with 
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Reprinted  by  Edward  Arber,  editor,  in  1895.  To  be  noted  that  in 
neither  of  these  titles  is  the  spelling  of  his  name  Muenster  or  Miins- 
ter,  but  library  cards  have  this  form  to-day. 

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PIKE,  NICHOLAS.  A  new  and  complete  system  of  arith- 
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PORTA,  JOHN  BAPTIST.  Natural  magick.  London.  (1658, 
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QUINCY,  JOSIAH.  The  history  of  Harvard  University.  2 
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RAMI,  P.,  scholae  in  liberates  artes,  quarum  elenchus  est 
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RAMUS,  P.,  See  Waddington. 

RAMUS,  PETER  (Pierre  de  la  Ramee).  The  art  of  logic 
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